Thirty-eight percent of out-of-state college students who were eligible to vote on November 5 planned to do so by mail or absentee ballot, according to the Fair Elections Center’s Campus Vote Project.

But with 50 states and nearly as many deadlines, it was a complicated process for some Gen Zers—including the 8 million young people who aged into the electorate since the 2022 midterms. 

AU Votes, a nonpartisan initiative sponsored by Bender Library and the Center for Leadership and Community Service, helped make it easier for students to perform their civic duty during the fourth Absentee Ballot Days, September 16–20. During the event—which coincided with National Voter Registration Day on September 17—dozens of student and staff volunteers helped 917 Eagles request, print, notarize, return, and track ballots from their home states. They also registered students to vote in Washington, DC.

“We know from research that whether people have an early positive voting experience is huge in terms of its impact on their later voting behavior,” says Gwendolyn Reece, the library’s director of research, teaching, and learning. “Our goal is to remove any barrier so our students don’t join the party of nonvoters.” 

AU Votes has helped thousands of Eagles cast their ballots, Reece says. Among them is New Jersey native Alyssa Levin, SPA/BA’25, SOC-SPA/MA ’26, who says she had “no idea” how to request an absentee ballot when she arrived at AU in 2022. 

“They walked me through the whole process,” says the communications, legal institutions, economics, and government major. “It was empowering to [experience] that support so early in my college experience. It inspired me to want to do more to help students vote.”

Levin and Emma Baumgarten, SIS/BA ’26, founded Voters of AU in 2023 to do just that. The student club, which boasts about 110 members, fosters political participation—regardless of party—through debate watch parties, voter registration drives, and more.

“We don’t care who you vote for,” Baumgarten says. “We just hope that you vote and feel good about doing it.”