The San José State Votes Festival took place on Seventh Street Plaza in celebration of National Voter Registration Day on Tuesday afternoon.
Mary Currin-Percival, political science professor and director of SJSU Votes and of the Institute of Public Affairs and Civic Engagement (IPACE), said both of the student organizations she is a part of were responsible for organizing the festival.
SJSU Votes is a project that facilitates non-partisan voter registration, mobilization and education for the campus community, according to a website from SJSU Votes.
IPACE is an organization created by the Political Science Department at SJSU in 2012, according to a website from SJSU.
The organization was designed to study local politics and policy in Silicon Valley, and prompt students to be civically engaged through internships and other community-based learning opportunities, according to the same website.
“The event is not just about voter registration at SJSU, we want to celebrate all sorts of civic engagement opportunities,” said Currin-Percival. “We invited 24 partners total including SJSU Votes here to encourage students to register to vote, to check their voter registration and to volunteer in local organizations.”
SJSU Votes invited various city councilmembers, assembly members and voting organizations to the festival, such as League of Women Voters, representatives of Mayor Matt Mahan, County of Santa Clara Registrar of Voters, representatives of Councilmember Omar Torres, representatives of Assemblymember Ash Kalra, UndocuSpartan, Bridge SJSU and many more.
Heather Cabral is a political science senior and is an intern for IPACE.
She has been part of SJSU Votes festivals before and said the essential goal of SJSU Votes events is to get students civically engaged and using their voice.
“I personally believe civic engagement is super important just to make sure that you have a say and use your voice in our democracy,” said Cabral. “Especially being in a country where we're allowed to have that voice, I think it's really important to use that power.”
Patricio Barajas is a student assistant and is a peer mentor for UndocuSpartan, helping undocumented first year and transfer students.
Barajas said he hopes having a booth at the festival representing UndocuSpartan will help undocumented students feel like they are not being pushed aside or feel like they’re being left out just because they cannot vote.
He said he wants undocumented students to feel like claiming their space in the political atmosphere and getting the recognition they need.
“If you look at history, at one point many people were not able to vote, but that did not stop them from advocating for themselves,” Barajas said. “In reality your voice is very important even if your voice is not a vote, a lot of voices make a lot of noise.”
Martha Oles, retired high school teacher and a longtime member of the League of Women Voters, represented the organization at its festival booth.
Oles said one of the main goals for the League of Women Voters as a partner at the festival is to inform students about voting even if they do not want to vote.
“Youngsters are the group that doesn't vote the most, and we are here trying to tell them you don't have to vote on every specific thing on the ballot and to give them information on how they can find out about the propositions and so forth,” Oles said. “We’re here to tell them what we have found out from what we’ve studied, we’re just trying to make a more enlightened population.”
In the 2022 midterm elections, national youth voter turnout was only at 23%, according to a website from Tufts University.
Political science senior Sabrina Nabizada is the president of Bridge SJSU, a multi-partisan and solution-oriented political organization on campus.
Nabizada believes the importance of the festival has to do with student involvement in their community outside of regular campus life.
“Students should definitely come out here and learn what different organizations are and what they have to offer,” Nabizada said. “I think it will help students get involved with the community outside of just attending classes.”
Kadence Walker is an SJSU alum and field representative for Assemblymember Ash Kalra.
Walker said Kalra loves to employ SJSU graduates like him.
Walker said the potential to make career connections is an added incentive to get students to come out and interact with organizations at this festival.
“Getting involved early on with civic participation, like being an intern or just attending events like our upcoming Veggie Fest, it’s a way to get involved locally,” said Walker. “It opens so many different doors to you and we always try to make the internship purposeful.”
Currin-Percival said the SJSU Votes festival had many different benefits for students through information, opportunity and initiative to register to vote in preparation for the upcoming March election.
“Definitely stay informed, don't wait to register to vote on election day,” said Currin-Percival. “In California, you can actually vote long before election day ... Fill out that ballot as soon as you feel comfortable that you're ready to vote, but don't wait until the last minute.”
