Interactive voting booth asks students why voting matters

"I vote because I want to contribute to the betterment of my community."

"It's my voice!!! I will use it to change the world."

Johns Hopkins students are sharing how they feel about casting ballots in the midterm elections by stepping into a custom-built voter booth—a roving interactive display popping up across the university's Homewood campus over the next two weeks.

The booth, part of the Center for Social Concern's nonpartisan #HopkinsVotes campaign, provides a space for students to write down their thoughts about the act of voting. Students are invited to step behind the red, white, and blue curtain and jot down their reasons for voting on the walls of the display.

Image caption: Sophomore Lauren Paulet joins JHU President Ron Daniels at the voting booth display

Image credit: Len Turner / Office of Communications

During the 2014 midterm elections, less than 15 percent of Johns Hopkins students cast a ballot. The Center for Social Concern is partnering with more than a dozen campus organizations to host voter registration drives, education sessions, and absentee ballot parties to increase voter turnout and remove barriers to student voting for the upcoming midterms, which will take place on Nov. 6.

"If our students don't vote, then politicians are going to continue to be responsive to people in my generation and not theirs because we do vote," said Johns Hopkins University President Ronald J. Daniels, who stopped by the booth while it was on display on Decker Quad on Tuesday.

Students who have registered to vote in their home states and want to complete an absentee ballot can attend the Absentee Ballot Party hosted by the Center for Social Concern on Oct. 26 from 12 to 4 p.m. on Keyser Quad.