Written By Bethune-Cookman University Newsroom
Students took to the streets Friday, March 15 in a voter registration drive organized by Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice Dr. Frank Wood and aptly titled “March Like Mary – Run Me My Ballot.”
The event, which was organized to educate B-CU students on the importance of voting and registering to vote, was a call to action to help students understand the power of the local vote and the impact their voices could have on the community they call home for most of the year. Students marched from the Performing Arts Center to Dr. Bethune’s statue at the riverside esplanade. Dr. Wood and other volunteers helped to shuttle students’ registrations to the Dayton Beach Regional Library, where they were submitted for official logging.
“I am truly proud of the commitment our students continue to show to preserving and carrying on the legacy of Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune,” said Dr. Frank Wood, assistant professor of criminal justice and organizer of the March Like Mary – Run Me My Ballot event. “It was truly inspiring, motivating, and mobilizing to see our students turn out in support of voting rights and as we marched in solidarity to pay homage to Dr. Bethune’s legacy and her commitment to civic engagement.”
One in ten eligible voters in the 2020 presidential election was from Generation Z – the group of young people born between 1996 and the early 2010s — and in the 2022 midterm elections, Generation Z made up the entire age 18-24 voting bloc for the first time.
Data show they are more politically engaged than previous generations too – a recent analysis of Census data found more Gen Zers voted in the 2022 midterms than Millennials, Gen X, and likely Boomers did in their generations’ first midterm election. Since that election cycle, more than $8 million additional Gen Zers have reached voting age, making this generation one of the most important groups for the upcoming election cycle. Despite historically high youth turnout, however, the Black, Latinx, and Asian American and Pacific Islander turned out at significantly lower rates than their white counterparts, yielding the highest racial turnout gap in decades, the report found.
Partnering with the Daytona Beach NAACP and the League of Women Voters, the nonpartisan event was one important step in helping B-CU students realize the importance and impact of their voice.
