Bridgewater College seeks to motivate rural youth voters

At a small rural liberal arts college in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, one professor and a small group of students are hoping to increase young voter engagement against the odds.

Dr. Bobbi Gentry, an associate professor of political science at Bridgewater College, noticed a need for voter engagement on campus after she launched a project called Valley Votes about two years ago.

The college, nestled in the softly rolling hills of the Shenandoah Vally, is a rural serving institution. The town of Bridgewater, Virginia, where the college is located, is small with a population of roughly 6,000. The college campus has a population of about 1,450 students – nearly 25% of the town’s population.

Gentry’s work through the Valley Votes program identified the town of Bridgewater and the surrounding area as a “civic desert.” That means it’s  an area where there are few, if any, organizations dedicated to educating the public on how civic action, like voting, directly affects their lives.

“One of the challenges that we face is getting young people involved,” Gentry said. “The number one reason why young people say they don’t vote is that they don’t have enough information.”

Seeing the challenges and seeking solutions

Young voters in rural areas experience a number of roadblocks to the polls.

Those roadblocks include access to accurate information on the candidates and their platforms. The spread of misinformation or disinformation over the last decade has made it difficult for students, and voters of any age to determine who aligns with their values. Limited access to broadband in many rural areas can limit a voter’s ability to gain legitimate information about candidates or voting requirements.

Gentry launched the nonpartisan BC Votes project in September with the help of four students as a follow up to Valley Votes, to remedy that lack of voter engagement among youth in the rural Shenandoah Valley. Both Valley Votes and BC Votes were made possible through grants from the Scholars Strategy Network.

Over the last five months, the group launched information campaigns and voter registration drives. During Virginia’s November 2023 elections, the students organized a “de-stress fest.” Ahead of the November 2024 election, they’re compiling a voter guide for their peers. They’ve managed to register more than 100 new voters in the last semester.

Regardless, the group is facing an uphill battle, as young voters have expressed a lack of interest in the upcoming presidential election.

Students are feeling disillusioned going into 2024 election

Jordan Mongold, 19, a freshman at Bridgewater College and one of the student organizers with BC Votes, has said several of her peers feel like their vote won’t count in this election cycle because they didn’t choose the presumptive nominees at the top of the ticket. She’s hoping to motivate her peers to focus on down-ballot races, instead.

“I think that myself and similar to a lot of other people, maybe the candidates aren’t exactly what they would choose but despite that it’s still important to vote and to promote that effort,” she said.

Tony Nesselrodt, 22, a senior at Bridgewater and another of the student organizers with BC Votes, also said he’s heard little enthusiasm about the upcoming election.

He said his friends or peers will talk about issues, but when he asks them if they plan to vote they’ll often say no because they feel like it won’t make a difference.

Gentry noted that the age difference between young voters and the two presumptive nominees, President Joe Biden, 81, and former President Donald Trump, 77, is one of the main reasons why her students say they’re uninterested. She also identified the lack of competition in the primary as another reason why enthusiasm has been lacking among younger voters.

“For me, it’s about understanding where young people are, and where they are right now is a little bit disillusioned with the process,” she said.

That disillusionment has made the goal of BC Votes critical. The group has worked hard to drum up enthusiasm among students on the campus and plans to continue to expand that work. They have begun planning events including a voting-specific game-show in the college's library and other incentives for students who register to vote.

BC Votes has also encouraged new voters on campus to use a voter engagement app called Motivote, technology to meet students where they're at. The app is designed to increase turnout among young people through games and reminders.

“It was getting people excited,” Nesselrodt said. People had begun to approach him in the halls to tell him they recently registered to vote.

This article originally appeared on Staunton News Leader: Small rural college launches program to get out the youth vote