When they went to vote in the 2018 midterm elections, Arizona State University junior Carla Naranjo and her classmates waited in lines that were up to three hours long. Their polling place, in fact, “was actually the highest-volume turnout location [in Maricopa County] on Election Day because of the enthusiasm [of] students,” reports Christine Dyster from the County Recorder’s Office.
For months leading up to the elections, student organizers working with the Feminist Majority Foundation, Population Action and NextGen America, among others, had spread out across the ASU campus, working with faculty and resident advisers to make announcements in classrooms and dorms, tabling for countless hours in public spaces and catching a few minutes with students as they raced between classes, talking about the importance of registering and voting.
“When we saw the long lines of…
