According to the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Wendy Sartory Link, the early voting poll station, placed on the Boca Campus during the previous primary and general elections, will be relocated to the Jupiter Campus for the 2022 elections. The primary takes place on Aug. 23 and the general will occur on Nov. 8.

Despite the Boca Campus no longer being an early voting site due to underperforming results in comparison to Jupiter and Palm Beach Gardens during the 2020 elections, it will still be a primary and general elections site, according to Link in an email.

For the Jupiter Campus, the early voting poll station will be in the Student Resources/Classroom Building, Room 149.

According to statistics, voter turnout in Palm Beach County was 26.61% for the primary and 76.3% for the general in 2020.

The National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement (NSLVE), the nation’s largest study of college and university student voting, made a report which showcased that out of 27,753 FAU students eligible to vote, 83.4% actually registered and 71.1% voted for election day.

FAU’s voting rate is 5.1% higher than the national average voting rate of 66%. 

“This is not affecting the primary and general elections; this is simply an early [voting] polling location that will be happening in July,” said Kathaleen Kelly, the SG Director of Governmental Relations. “Students still will have access to all their voting needs that are going to happen in August, as well as November.” 

According to Link in the email, the Boca Downtown Library, the Spanish River Library, and the Sugar Sand Park Community Center have been designated as early voting stations for the upcoming elections to still provide easy access to early voters residing in Boca Raton. 

“I’m actually a Jupiter student, so I actually think it’s great that the Jupiter Campus has this opportunity because it does not only strengthens the FAU community in Jupiter, but also strengthens the Jupiter community with FAU,” said Kelly.

FAU is part of the Campus Vote Project to participate in MTV’s Early Vote Challenge that provides a $3,000 grant to fund programs related to non-partisan voter engagement, such as the Campus Vote Project Democracy Fellows. 

The fellowship involves hands-on guidance from the Campus Vote Project as well as university staff to advocate for voting resources with an emphasis on early voting, according to Lindsey Goldstein, an assistant director of the Weppner Center for Civic Engagement & Service-Learning. 

The fellowship currently has an available position for any students interested in civic engagement.

Additionally, FAU has resources to assist students pledge and register to vote. For the upcoming months leading up to the elections, the Office of Leadership Education and Development (LEAD) will have several events to educate and encourage students about voting.

The first event “Donut Forget to Register and Pledge to Vote” will take place on July 19 between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. on Diversity Way. 

Ma. Emilia Santander is the Copy Desk Chief at the University Press. For information regarding this or other stories, you can reach her on Instagram @emilias_ed or email her at [email protected].