Rutgers–Camden Supporting Students All the Way to the Voting Booth

Dedicated pair is making clear the importance of student and community votes

From an office on the lower level of the Paul Robeson Library, Simanti Lahiri, program coordinator for student civic engagement, and Daniel Fidalgo Tomé, director of community engagement, are giving it their all to inspire Rutgers–Camden students to get out and vote on Election Day, November 5.

“The ability to encourage nonpartisan democratic student engagement is a commitment that yields results,” said Lahiri, who spearheads the on-campus effort. “In 2020, New Jersey youth voters led the nation in turnout. Young voters have the power to help write their futures. If you abdicate your right to vote, you are abdicating your power.”

Your vote is your voice. Every day, on campus and beyond, we are registering people to vote so they can be heard.

Daniel Fidalgo Tomé

Director of Community Engagement

As students help their fellow Scarlet Raptors with voter registration, alumni, staff, and faculty are also supporting Lahiri and Tomé by manning registration tables at events on and off campus. They will continue volunteering to register students and others until the October 15 cutoff date.

A recent event, co-sponsored by the Office of Diversity, Inclusion, and Community Engagement (DICE) and the RUC Votes Coalition, kicked off Ballot Bowl—a statewide non-partisan voter registration and engagement competition— treating students to lunch as they learned more about the issues involved in the rapidly approaching election. Marc Jackson, former NBA player and current analyst for NBC Sports Philadelphia, spoke at the event and urged students to “get off the sidelines and get in the game.”

Alexander Simone, a sophomore majoring in urban studies and minoring in philosophy, plays an essential role in encouraging students to vote as the lead ambassador for the RUC Votes Coalition. Importantly, Simone is a Bonner Civic Scholar, and the Coalition stemmed from a project founded by his predecessor, Matthew Brodsky CCAS’24. Bonner Civic Scholars are a civic engagement-focused community of students who demonstrate the potential to be public service leaders and connect Rutgers to communities on campus, in South Jersey, and beyond.

What inspired me to join the RUC Votes Coalition was seeing the lack of interest in elections beyond the presidential vote. Many people in the area are registered to vote yet choose not to. Even those who do vote often focus only on presidential elections. I want people to care about state and local elections as well, because these results impact the policies that affect day-to-day life for most people.

Alexander Simone

According to the Pew Research Center, Generation Z—those born between 1997 and 2012—is at an age to exert significant influence on the 2024 election as older generations remain statistically static.

“In addition to the work we do within the Coalition, we encourage all students and community members not only to vote, but also to go beyond voting by engaging in discourse on public policy,” Simone said. “By informing people on how and where to vote, as well as on the candidates, we seek to increase participation in the political process both on and off campus.”

Eligible New Jersey residents may register to vote online by October 15. Pennsylvania residents may register online by October 21.