Nonpartisan Student Organizations Mobilize for Elections

Now that the Texas Voter Registration deadline has passed,student groups focus on voter turnout

Sam Allen | Pulse 

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story is part of a series on political organizations at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley that will cover different student groups of varying political backgrounds.

As the 2024 election cycle approaches its final weeks, UTRGV’s nonpartisan organizations are increasing efforts to educate and encourage Vaqueros to vote. Each of these organizations works to increase civic engagement, but must adhere to strict regulations on their political activity. 

The Internal Revenue Service  explicitly prohibits any nonpartisan organization from endorsing candidates for public office due to stipulations under 501 (c) (3) tax-exempt status.  The IRS also stipulates that while nonpartisan organizations can participate in political activity and advocate for specific policy positions, those activities must be open to all Americans regardless of party affiliation. Such activities include voter registration, get-out-the-vote drives, voter education, briefings, training and sometimes lobbying. 

Texas Rising, a Texas-based, youth-focused nonpartisan organization at UTRGV, advocates for progressive climate change, healthcare and education policies. Working independently of either political party, Texas Rising seeks to advance its initiatives through increased voter turnout, according to its website. 

Melanie Martinez, campus organizer for Texas Rising and a UTRGV psychology senior, describes the chapter’s priorities as LGBTQ+ equality and reproductive justice. To advance these goals, Texas Rising is engaged in the Queer Space Alliance, which hosts biweekly meetings to address mental health issues among the LGBTQ+ community. 

“With this initiative, we aim to foster a warm and welcoming safe space for this specific demographic,” Martinez said. “Senate Bill 17 [which banned Diversity Equity and Inclusion offices at Texas’ public universities] was the catalyst for us to form this initiative.” 

 Texas Rising’s second initiative, which is on reproductive justice, provides contraceptives to the UTRGV community through a partnership with Advocates for Youth, a national nonprofit that describes its mission as “partner[ing] with young people and their adult allies to champion youth rights to bodily autonomy and build power to transform policies, programs and systems to secure sexual health and equity for all youth.” 

“We want to provide students with as much access to contraceptives as possible,” Martinez said. “We give away Plan B, condoms and other contraceptives at our tablings and other events. Our goal is to be a reliable source of contraceptives for UTRGV students.”  

In addition to reproductive justice and LGBTQ+ equality, Texas Rising carried out voter registration drives, get-out-the-vote initiatives and registered voters on both campuses. 

According to Martinez, Texas Rising hopes to achieve its progressive goals by encouraging Vaqueros to go to polls and vote.

“We try to connect with the student body through engaging conversations about reproductive health care, LGBTQ+ equality  and the importance of voting and civic engagement,” Martinez said. “I think that there is a lot of political apathy. So many people in the Rio Grande Valley are registered to vote, but aren’t actually going out to the polls.”  

Similar to Texas Rising, NextGen America is a youth voter organization. However, NextGen America is a national, as opposed to state-based, organization. 

 According to its website, NextGen America primarily focuses on mobilizing millions of young people across the United States each year to support progressive causes.

“Our [target demographic] is 18-to 35-year-olds, but we register anyone and everyone because it’s important,” said Angel Perez, NextGen America’s president at UTRGV. “Your vote is your voice.”

 To reach as many Vaqueros as possible, NextGen America has attended multiple UTRGV student-led events such as Anime Fest, Freedom Fest and held tabling events in front of the student union and library.

Due to its prolific presence on campus, NextGen America at UTRGV claims to see increased enthusiasm among students according to Perez. 

“Young people are eager to vote,” Perez said. “We’ve seen people jump from ‘no, I’m not voting this year’ to ‘yes, I am going to vote this year.’”  

According to Perez, despite Texas being one of the most diverse states in the country, it has historically had “very low youth voter turnout,”

According to a Tufts Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement post election survey, youth voters who did not vote in 2022 cited running out of time to register or missing the registration deadline as the main reasons why they did not cast a ballot.  

This year, Vaqueros Vote, the university’s coalition of students, staff and faculty, is committed to increasing turnout and civic participation across the university community according to its mission statement.

“We are really focused on outreach and getting people engaged, not only with voting, but with civic engagement overall,” said Samanta Zavala, program coordinator for Civic Engagement and Leadership in the Center for Student Involvement. 

“The more people we connect with, the better we can educate the community and help increase participation in elections,” Zavala added.

   Vaqueros Vote has full time staff and part-time student workers, some of whom are trained as volunteer deputy registrars. VDRs are appointed by county voter registrars and charged with helping register voters in the state.

Vaqueros Vote is also working with the Center for Student Involvement, Division of Governmental & Community Relations and University Marketing and Communications.

With the goal of increasing voter turnout and civic engagement, Vaqueros Vote also partnered with NextGen America to register students to vote on National Voter Registration Day.

“[NextGen America allowed] Center for Student Involvement to be the face of the event and helped us by providing VDRs,” Zavala said. “CSI took all of the applications and handed them off to the county, which was key to our collaboration. We provided accountability and ensure that all applications are turned in.”  

“In the future, though, we would like to have an open call to all organizations through [university communications], that go out to students and faculty and staff so that we can create a list of people on campus who are [interested] and organize [them by] county to get more support registering students to vote,” she said.

These efforts are particularly significant given the low voter turnout across the Valley. In Cameron County there were roughly 218,000 registered voters in 2020 and about 115,000 made it to the polls during the 2020 general election.

 In Hidalgo County, there were about 392,000 registered voters in 2020 and about 222,000 cast a ballot. For perspective, about 420,000 people live in Cameron County and about 870,000 individuals live in Hidalgo County. That means roughly one-fourth of each county’s population is deciding important election outcomes.

As the 2024 general election approaches, UTRGV’s nonpartisan organizations are leading the charge to promote a culture of civic engagement on campus. All of these organizations agree, your vote is your voice and your voice is crucial to change. 

Early voting begins Oct. 21 in the state of Texas and will end Nov. 1. For further information on voting or getting involved,  reach out to NextGen America, Texas Rising or Vaqueros Vote via their VLink pages.