Tufts Students and Tisch College Ramp Up Midterm Voting Push, Including Help With Notarized Ballots

Student organizations at Tufts University are working with the university's Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life to distribute election resources and host events ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections, The Tufts Daily reported Thursday.

JumboVote, a nonpartisan student club affiliated with Tisch College, focuses on registering students and helping them request mail-in ballots. "In the election years, we really are focused on helping students register to vote and request their mail-in ballots," co-president Ella Heckman told the Daily. The club also fields questions about how to research candidates and ballot propositions, she said.

The club's Democracy Reps program handles much of its outreach. "We do tabling every week, and we post on our Instagram and our social media a lot as multiple ways to get outreach," said Emma So, a junior who chairs the program and is president of the Tufts Democrats.

Tisch College also draws on its Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, known as CIRCLE, which studies youth voting nationally. Jennifer McAndrew, Tisch College's senior director of communications and planning, said CIRCLE's data informs the college's civic engagement work on campus.

That work included an event scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 22, with the secretaries of state of Minnesota and Iowa, one a Republican and the other a Democrat, to address common voter concerns about election security, according to McAndrew.

Tisch College has also contacted students from Missouri, Mississippi and Oklahoma, where first-time voters casting mail-in ballots must have their ballots notarized, the Daily reported. The college sent an email to students from those states explaining the requirement. (The Daily later corrected its report to note that the rules are not new in all three states.)

"I would be surprised if any other college in the United States does that," said Peter Levine, associate dean for academic affairs and Lincoln Filene professor of citizenship and public affairs at Tisch College. "I think Tufts is as good as you can be for encouraging voting."

Student leaders said interest has picked up in recent weeks. "I do think that, especially in the last week or so, it's really dawning on people that an election's coming up," Heckman said. "These are important midterms, and people are afraid, excited. There's a lot of emotions attached to these midterms, maybe even more than in the past."

So said enthusiasm among young Democrats is high. "People are, one, really angry with the Trump administration, and people are also really excited about this blue wave of these exciting candidates," she said.

Mack Kozlowski, president of the Tufts Republicans, said Republican students are ready to vote but that this is not a change. "I haven't noticed anything being more driven or less driven, because normally, we are very driven to vote," he said, adding that the group's small size makes its members especially committed. Kozlowski and Heckman both acknowledged that their views are shaped by their involvement in political circles, where students tend to be more active.

National data point in a similar direction. A 2026 CIRCLE poll on youth attitudes, issues and power found that 56 percent of young people said they are "super likely" to vote, the Daily reported. "If all those young people voted, which they may not, that would be an incredibly high turnout rate," McAndrew said. "We take that as a very positive sign in terms of youth turnout."

That figure contrasts with the fall Harvard Youth Poll, also released this week, which found 33 percent of Americans ages 18 to 29 said they will definitely vote. The two surveys use different questions and samples, so the figures are not directly comparable.

Levine said dissatisfaction can drive participation. "It feels like high stakes for a lot of people," he said. "I think a lot of people are very dissatisfied, and actually being dissatisfied or angry can motivate turnout." "Just by virtue of being young, you have more years ahead of you and also are more likely to still need more education, even if you're not in college," Levine said. "There's different interests, and if you don't vote then those interests get ignored." McAndrew said the value of Tisch College's support lies in letting students take part without fear of asking basic questions.

Tisch College maintains an Election 2026 page with state registration and ballot deadlines, and Tufts Now published a guide to voting at Tufts on Oct. 19.