MSUvote

In this episode of Exposure, host Tessa Kresch engages in a timely and crucial discussion with members of MSUvote, Jordan and Aiden. The conversation delves into the organization's mission to register, inform, and prepare students for voting, breaking down barriers and emphasizing the importance of civic engagement. They discuss the groups initiatives, including voter education, the significance of local elections and the ease of early voting. The discussion also touches on overcoming challenges students face with voting logistics and the critical need for nonpartisan information.

For more information, visit https://msuvote.msu.edu/

What is Exposure on Impact 89FM?

Exposure provides a forum for student groups and area non-profits at Michigan State University and the Greater Lansing area. On the show, you'll hear discussions about the groups themselves as well as the relevant issues of today.

Tessa: 00:20

Hello. And welcome back to Exposure. You are listening to season 15. I'm your host, Tessa Creusch. Today, we're diving into a topic that's not only timely but crucial, especially as we find ourselves just 16 days away from election day.

Tessa: 00:35

I'm sitting down with members of MSU Vote, a nonpartisan group dedicated to making sure every Spartan is registered, informed, and ready to vote. Jordan, Aiden, thank you guys so much for joining me on Exposure today.

Jordan: 00:47

Thanks for having us.

Tessa: 00:48

Absolutely. Could you guys start off by introducing yourselves?

Jordan: 00:51

Yeah. I'm Jordan. I'm the MSU democratic engagement coordinator. I essentially vote, and I'm a MSU alum. I went back here I started here in, like, 2009.

Aiden: 01:03

My name is Aiden Bourgeault. I'm a senior here at Michigan State University. I'm studying theory and constitutional democracy at James Madison College. And at MSU Vote, I'm its initiative programming intern.

Tessa: 01:17

Alright. And could we just start off with the basics? What is MSU Vote? What's the history of the organization?

Aiden: 01:22

So MSU Vote is a nonpartisan committee that is, like you were saying earlier, entirely focused on educating MSU students about upcoming elections, about building civic habits, about really kind of making sure that students, while they're here at MSU, are ready for what's beyond their time here in college and being civically active in participating in elections and being politically informed, learning where they can find accurate information, how to do research, how to fill out a ballot. So, really, kind of the whole core aspect of the ways in which we interact with our democracy here in the United States is really all kind of falls under the umbrella of MSU votes mission here at Michigan State University.

Jordan: 02:03

Yeah. And just the biggest barrier to students voting is the knowledge barrier. They don't know where to get the information. The fact that there's so many students from so many different places and the rules differ in every state, it's just really hard to find that information and find how to apply it here. And so our goal is always to just make it as easy as possible for them to know how they can either vote in their home state or vote here and how easy it is with the new election laws that are in place.

Tessa: 02:28

Yeah. And that's especially important right now. But how did you guys get involved in the organization? Have you always felt civically engaged?

Aiden: 02:35

For me? So I did community college over COVID. I found my passion for politics while I was studying there and transferred into Michigan State University, and I'm now studying at James Madison College. And since then, I've always been kind of looking for ways to start applying my my policy skills, working in politics, the knowledge I've gained through my education. And I was fortunate enough to happen upon the application for MSU vote, and I was like, why not?

Aiden: 03:03

I'm, like, interested in voting. I would love to work and learn more about the election processes. Especially working locally has been, like, a really big passion for me, and that was kinda how I got started. And since then, it's just kinda taken off, and I've gotten to work on a a numerous amount of amazing projects here on campus, both with the committee and with other organizations across campus like ASMSU and our different RSOs. It's it's been inspiring entirely along the way.

Aiden: 03:27

Yeah.

Jordan: 03:27

I just finished up my master's degree at University of Michigan, and one of my goals was always to to come back to Michigan State because you don't realize how great of a school it is until you go somewhere else.

Tessa: 03:36

Especially that school.

Jordan: 03:37

Oh, yeah. Exactly. You go there. It's like, oh, it's Michigan. It's terrible.

Jordan: 03:40

But and I'm always been really passionate about civic engagement. I'm a big politics nerd. I follow elections. Like, people follow sports. So, really, it was just a natural fit.

Jordan: 03:49

And, it was great to be able to come back here and do something so important as to get students who their whole future is ahead of them. And every election should be super important to them because they're gonna have loans, and they're gonna have a job, and those things are directly affected by elections.

Tessa: 04:03

And we talked about how important it is to just be educated in general, but why else is it important to have an organization like this on a campus?

Aiden: 04:11

Definitely one of the biggest things is ensuring that the information that the students are getting is accurate. So we work with the secretary of state and the local clerk's offices to ensure that the information that the students are receiving is entirely what they what they should be. It's super important because on election day, if you don't have accurate information, you could be showing up at the wrong precinct. You could be misinformed about, you know, who's gonna be on the ballot. And so those are things we all work to prevent and really kind of I mean, that's at the bottom of, like, the education aspect is is really especially in a time where information is so so widespread.

Aiden: 04:47

Being a centralized location where students can find accurate information from trusted sources is really kind of part of our our overall mission at MSU Vote.

Jordan: 04:55

Yeah. And here, it's really important too because everyone who goes to Michigan State thinks they're they live in East Lansing, but they don't. So you have to direct them to the appropriate city and the appropriate clerk's office, the appropriate early voting location. And in that way, the the knowledge issues we have here are really unique, and that coupled with just the amount of out of state students. Because most city, it's it's like, you know, I live in Detroit.

Jordan: 05:19

I vote in Detroit. I register with the clerk there. But here, it's such like a a unique place that there needs to be a place where students can get that unique information, and we try to fill that gap.

Tessa: 05:29

And with these out of staters and these people who live just in different cities, what are some challenges that they face when voting?

Aiden: 05:36

For out of state students, one of the biggest things that we've found kind of as a recurring issue for them that they might not be educated about is the fact that they can't register online. They have to go in person to a clerk to prove that they are who they are, and they're living where they're living. So that requires them to show a proof of ID and a proof of residency. And so that's a big thing that we've been really kind of especially early on in this election cycle, we were really driving home was, hey. For our out of state students, here's where the clerk's offices are gonna be, you know, up to elections election day.

Aiden: 06:05

These are the things you're gonna need to provide, like a lease agreement or a photo ID or your student ID or your live on agreement to really kind of prepare them and help them make the mental note in their mind. Like, okay. I need to be prepared if I wanna register here on election day. I wanna make sure I have the materials necessary so that something doesn't come up, and I miss out on my opportunity to make my voice heard this election.

Jordan: 06:25

That's a problem that we've seen in past elections as well is people show up to vote somewhere on campus, and they wait for in line for however many hours. And they get up to the voting booth, and it's like, oh, you're not registered to vote in East Lansing. You actually live in Meridian Township. In the past, there's been a voting van, I believe, was something they utilized in the past to drive people to the appropriate city. But we're trying to cut down on that so that people in the first place know what city to go to, what city they actually live in.

Jordan: 06:51

Because I don't know if people realize this, but between Bath Township, Meridian Township, and some other places around East Lansing, East Lansing has, like, sort of agreements, I forget the official term, where East Lansing has, like, taken over that part of the city. So it's technically East Lansing, but then, you know, you vote in a township that doesn't necessarily manage the land. And so that that kind of creates some confusing situations for students where they legitimately think they live in East Lansing, and they they live somewhere else. And, therefore, they have to vote in that appropriate city.

Tessa: 07:22

So how are you educating these people? Are there resources on your website?

Aiden: 07:25

Yeah. So in terms of education, the website has been so we released a brand new website coming into this semester. We've been developing it since the beginning of this year.

Tessa: 07:33

It looks great,

Aiden: 07:34

by the way. Thank you. Thank you. We're we were really, really stoked about this going out because it's just so much cleaner. It's easier to use.

Aiden: 07:41

And that was really kind of at the basis of why we decided to make a new website in the first place. We wanted the you know, it to be super easy, informative, and concise so that students who are, as we all know, very busy individuals, aren't spending, you know, more than a couple minutes scrolling through pages trying to figure out where the information they actually need is at. Right. So the website is built around our 3 step process, which is get registered, make a plan, and be informed. And so it's through this 3 step process.

Aiden: 08:09

It automatically kinda steps starts them out on this this guide where, okay, first step's getting registered. Are you in state or out of state? And we have guides for those. And then from there, making a plan. Are you gonna do absentee ballot voting?

Aiden: 08:20

Are you doing in person voting? Here's where those polling locations are gonna be be at. All that's provided on the website. And then being informed, we provide nonpartisan guides to the ballot as well as websites where you can request your ballot actually before the election day. So you can actually look at a sample version of your the ballot you will receive on election day.

Aiden: 08:37

So that way you can have the opportunity to do your own research and be make your own decisions and become informed. Because that is a really important part and aspect, especially with down ballot candidates, is making sure that, you know, students do know who they're voting for. And that can be a very intimidating thing when students, you know, they finish filling out the top of the ballot, and then they get the lower part. And they're like, I have no idea who the rest of these people are. Well, that's part of the being informed part, and that's you know, we we've started employing primarily 2 new websites, one resource that we've used before and a newer one that we started using, which is vote 411 and then guides dot vote.

Aiden: 09:09

Both of them are nonpartisan, and they provide excellent guides to not only local elections here in Michigan, but statewide races, federal races, and races in other states. So even if you're an out of state student and you're planning on going back home to vote, you can find a guide on our website that'll give you all the information about everyone that's gonna be on your ballot come election day.

Tessa: 09:29

Right. That's so important that you mentioned. I mean, I think a lot of people can just assume on the ballot is the 2 presidential candidates that everyone's talking about, but there is so much more that people are voting for. So you guys are focused on that as well?

Aiden: 09:42

Exactly. Yeah. And that's always been a big aspect of the of voting that we've always kind of worked towards, especially, you know, not just in a presidential election cycle, but even in local election cycles. You know, kind of driving home the importance of your local candidates, your city council, and the importance that that can have on students' lives, especially when many of them enjoy spending their weekends down in East Lansing. We've worked with ASMSU before to host council forums here on campus at the International Center where students will have the opportunity to ask candidates questions, you know, kinda get an idea and a feel for these candidates in person.

Aiden: 10:14

And that's that's a big part of making sure that the students are ultimately informed on election day. And so, yeah, working on getting those down ballot candidates and making sure people aren't just filling in whatever box they, you know, decide because these are candidates that are going to make very, very important decisions that have very, very big impacts in your life.

Jordan: 10:32

And and let me just, highlight how important that is is Michigan State's one of the 3 universities in the state of Michigan where their, governing body is elected. And so students can have a direct say in the governing of the university. You know, if they don't like what they see with their board of trustees, then it's important to actually do research on who those candidates are and to make sure that they're electing the appropriate person because, funny enough, that's one of the the ballot items that people have no idea when they go into the ballot box to look at. And for MSU students, it might be the most important one for their 4 years that they're here.

Tessa: 11:08

Yeah. For sure. MSU is described as a voter friendly campus. Could you tell me what that means?

Aiden: 11:14

Yeah. So the voter friendly campus is an award that we've received by having outstanding turnout rates and registration rates on campus. And this is something that is primarily reflected in our NSLVE data, which is collected by Tufts University, And it is a database of over a 1000 colleges and universities across the nation that collects data on voter turnout and voter registration on their campus and in their student populations. And MSU has really been really kind of an exemplary university when it comes to voter registration and voter voter education and making sure students are turning out at the ballot box. We've had some of the highest, if not the highest in recent years, turnout among students.

Aiden: 11:51

So in 2020, during that presidential cycle, the registration rate for the percent of voting eligible students who were registered to vote during that election cycle was 91.3%. Wow. Yeah. An incredible I mean, for a student population of 50,000, that is amazing.

Tessa: 12:08

Right.

Aiden: 12:08

And so this data ultimately helps speak to how well we are doing at MSU and the university as a whole is doing at making sure that these students are civically engaged and making sure that students are understanding the importance of elections and turning out to vote and making sure that those elections are also accessible to those students across their campus.

Tessa: 12:26

Right. And I understand a lot of people do feel disillusioned or disconnected with politics. Some people may think that their vote doesn't matter. What kind of thing would you say to them?

Jordan: 12:35

Really, what I can say to them this year in particular is that Michigan is one of the closest and most competitive states in both of our top offices of president and, senate. And in this, it can literally be one vote makes a difference. I think in 2020, it was decided by around a 100,000 votes, and that's just several votes in each city. And so here in Michigan, in particular, their vote really does matter this election cycle. And if they don't believe us, just look at the polls.

Jordan: 13:02

I mean, they're, all within the margin of error, so they're statistically tied at this point.

Tessa: 13:07

Wow. Do you have any advice for someone who may be undecided or is not sure whether they're going to register and vote?

Aiden: 13:14

There's no better time than now to get started in participating in making the changes you wanna see in your government. And the best way to do that is by showing out at the polls. That's where it starts. So for those that, you know, might feel disillusioned or disenfranchised, it is just as important to still turn out at the polls, to still make your voices heard, to participate in our democracy in order to, you know, ensure and continue the pursuit of those goals that you have and and making a government that reflects the values that you would like them to to reflect. And so that's ultimately something that I think is potentially something that's forgotten and something that's still extremely important for these voters is remembering that this is this is, like, one of the most important times that you can actually make your voice heard.

Aiden: 13:56

Anyone can write to their senator. Anyone can write to their representative. But the aspect of voting in an election and actually having a say in who ends up in office is one of the most powerful most powerful aspects of our democracy that we as citizens are granted. And so that's something that I definitely think should not be disregarded, and it should be something that's valued. And that's something we hope to kind of instill, you know, with building civic habits in our student population as part of our goal is kind of helping them learn the importance of voting and how much that can have an impact on your your lives.

Jordan: 14:29

And it's just so easy now. You know? In Michigan now, it's easy to not really care 3 months out. And then, you know, you miss the registration deadline. It's like, oh, I can't even vote this year anyway.

Jordan: 14:39

But this year, you'd register right on election day and vote. You know? It's just so easy to go do. There's no timelines you have to worry about. You just have to get it done, you know, before or on election day.

Jordan: 14:49

You could have nothing done, no preparation, and just show up, and you can vote. So I think when we talk about people not caring, the fact that we've made it so easy kind of makes it a little easier for them to justify, you know, going out and participating in, you know, what is always a big event as we saw last time with all the lines and everything. Now you just don't have to do any prep work. You can just go there.

Tessa: 15:11

And we talked about these ways to vote and how much easier they're made now. You mentioned earlier about the early voting. Mhmm. Tell me about that.

Jordan: 15:18

Yeah. So this year, starting on October 21st, the East Lansing clerk's office is going to open an early voting center in the comm arts building in the UKAR Studio B. And from October 21st to November 3rd, you can go to the comm arts building. You can register, and you can cash your vote right there. And so that way, you can avoid any lines or anything.

Jordan: 15:39

You can go in between classes. I I know Tuesday is not an easy day to do anything for anyone, especially since it's so early in the week for students. So this way, you can really get it done at your convenience. The fact that you can just register and vote without leaving campus, I think, makes it a lot easier for students.

Aiden: 15:56

Yeah. Being a student, I you know, I'm unfortunately no longer registered here in East Lansing as I'm commuting this semester. But I remember when I did have the opportunity to use an early voting center in February during the primaries, it it is one of the easiest ways to, you know, participate in the election cycle. The workers that, you know, help allow us to have these early voting centers are amazing at what they do. They're absolutely incredible for the work that they do.

Aiden: 16:21

And the early voting aspect of these upcoming elections are are definitely you know, we hope to see amazing turnouts, and, hopefully, those will help boost our turnout rates. Because like I was saying, we had that 91% voter registration rate for 2020. However, the actual voting turnout rate for that election was down in the 70 mid 70 percent. So, you know, we would like to close that gap as much as possible between voter registration and voter turnout. And that is a big aspect of something that we're focusing on this year and why we're putting so much emphasis on promoting the early voting center is really kind of making sure that, okay, the first step's done, and that's voter registration.

Aiden: 16:55

And everyone you know, there's a lot of emphasis just placed on the voter registration aspect. But as we continue to improve on voter registration and help get more and more people registered, especially with new laws allowing voter registration, I mean, many many are now registering to vote in high school before they graduate. And a lot of that's having positive, impacts on our voter registration statewide. So the next big issue is getting those people to the actual ballot boxes. And so the early voting center is something I'm personally very excited to see the data on its effects, and it's something that we hope to see lots and lots of of students using across campus.

Aiden: 17:30

And that's something we're working with RSOs to help promote. We're working with our other, campus organizations and facilities to really kinda help put this emphasis, make it a, you know, big event here on campus that the early voting center will open. We're gonna do be doing a ton of events and promotion of it in partnership with, multitude of partners to really kind of, you know, drive it home. This is something that every student that's registered in East Lansing will have access to, and it'll make voting literally as easy as possible. It'll probably take less than 5 minutes to get in and out, and you get to put your your ballot into the tabulator that will actually count your vote.

Aiden: 18:02

And and

Jordan: 18:03

the big thing with that too, the the big advantage of the early voting center on campus is that if you're an out of state student and you, you know, your absentee ballot got lost in the mail or got sent to your parents' house or you just haven't mailed it back in time because if you haven't mailed it back in time, then it might not get counted. You can actually register here in East Lansing because, you know, you live here now. You can go to the early voting center. You can register here, and you can vote here. And then that way, you don't have to worry about, oh, you know, my absentee ballot didn't get mailed out.

Jordan: 18:33

My vote's not gonna count. No. I can still count here.

Tessa: 18:36

Yeah. And with all the work that you're doing and how big this election is, I imagine that gap will be closed, hopefully. But what would you say these hot button issues and these primary things people are focused on, especially students?

Aiden: 18:50

For this election cycle, I definitely think it's the presidential candidates are probably the biggest I mean, in nature, it is a presidential election cycle. So that's what we expect. But there's a multitude of policy issues too. You know, we have you know, students are very interested in becoming politically engaged and starting to, you know, become really passionate about voicing their political opinions. And so that's something we do expect to see reflected in the upcoming election, and it's something that we know across campus has been just very, very popular this year, especially with the amount of tabling, voter registration drives.

Aiden: 19:22

There's a there's a multitude of organizations that that are really kinda feeling the heat from this election and are are really kinda looking at, you know, making sure that with with the amount of fervor around the election that it's supplemented with the appropriate amounts of, you know, voter education, voter registration, and support with voter turnout.

Jordan: 19:38

Yeah. I just remember when I was in, back in 2012 during the election, nobody on campus really cared. I think, elections back then were still kind of for nerds. And now it just has become so mainstream. You know?

Jordan: 19:50

Everybody's got an opinion. Yeah. I'd like it if everyone got along a little better, but everybody is really excited about the election one way or the other. And I feel like they all really wanna go out there and vote. And, if they just have realize how easy it is, then, they're gonna go do that.

Tessa: 20:04

You mentioned that you guys work with other organizations. You hold events. How are you working to engage these students?

Aiden: 20:11

So one of the ways that we're doing is kinda like I had mentioned earlier where we have a committee that we run. And the this committee has participants from across both faculty and students from across campus where and this is something that's open. We meet every other Thursday. You can find on our calendar on our website the days that we're meeting. We meet over Zoom.

Aiden: 20:29

And it's a great place for students that are interested in interested in in maybe learning a bit more about what we do and also maybe voicing some opinions or ideas that they have on ways to support voter education and and things that they wanna see from us on campus. So that's kind of been one of the initial ways that we've kinda started working with these registered student organizations. And one of the big things is we're trying to work with RSOs to have, like, voting days at the EVC where these RSOs can go as a group. You know? Because it can be it can be hard sometimes.

Aiden: 20:57

It can be intimidating going alone to cast your ballot. And so one of the ways we're trying to help support that is by getting together with your friends, getting together with your RSOs or your clubs or your sororities and kinda making an event out of it. Like, a little you know, you go out. You go and cast your ballot, and, you know, maybe you hang out on, you know, on campus, or maybe you go down to the dairy store and get ice cream. You know, just kinda make something you know, make it an enjoyable experience Right.

Aiden: 21:22

Help kind of remove those barriers for the intimidating aspects of any election and kinda make it an easier experience for everyone. Another amazing, opportunity that we've had this year is partnering with the Broad Art Museum. So we've been doing events there between votes and totes and Spartan Wellness voting edition, both of which just happened within the last month on, you know, really kind of creating environments where students can, you know, have activities to do while simultaneously having conversations about voting and learning more about voting and getting something out of it, making it making it a fun endeavor. And so those are those are ways that we're continuing to work with engaging with students on campus. Another way that we're working on on engaging with students this year that we're extremely excited about is, a new program internship, really, that we launched, which is our democratic engagement internship.

Aiden: 22:08

And so we've actually hired students to have those those educational conversations with other students. So really kind of focusing on that peer to peer aspect of voter education and really kinda helping students get out there, be informed, get engaged. So far, it's been amazing. We've been having tabling across campus, and that's something I'll let, Jordan speak on in a minute. But it is it's an amazing way because sometimes it can be intimidating to have these conversations.

Aiden: 22:33

And even for us, it can be hard to have conversations, you know, with students as, you know, a resource here at MSU. So kind of breaking that down and just having a conversation with, you know, meeting up at with a student at a table and being like, hey. Where can I find more information about that? Kind of helps us get around, you know, many of the different aspects of intimidation or just overall making it easy for students to have a conversation and also kind of building back an environment of having conversations in general about elections and and knowing how to navigate those things. And those are skills that we're training our democratic engagement interns to have.

Aiden: 23:04

We're also imparting these skills onto the students that they're talking with. So really kind of building and creating a communal sense of voter registration, voter education, and hopefully, in turn, supporting our overall voter turnout on campus.

Jordan: 23:17

Yeah. What we're doing too, we're working with these student groups. They're having us come talk to their meetings. I got a few meetings in the coming weeks here that I'm gonna go discuss how easy it is to vote now, talking about politics with people. And in that way, we're kind of working with student groups.

Jordan: 23:31

They're also helping us to organize events, really, aside from just going to vote together at the polls. We have outside groups that are trying to hold early voter rallies where we get people really excited and, you know, they're on their lunch, and they can just go to the polls and cast their vote.

Tessa: 23:46

Yeah. I like that you're kind of making it a fun bonding activity.

Aiden: 23:49

Exactly. And that's, you know, and that's just one of the ideas that we're hoping this year. You know, we have our election cycles, and then we have these off time periods. And that during those periods, that's when we, you know, review our data, kinda go over our strategies, you know, talk about what we think was successful. And from what we've seen over the last couple election cycles is really kind of we wanna make voting an an easy topic to address on campus.

Aiden: 24:10

We want it to be something that everyone's embracing on campus, that it's not something that people should feel that they need to shy away from, that people really can feel empowered talking about voting regardless of political opinions and all want to exercise their their ability to vote across campus. And that's honestly something that we continue to hope cultivate here on campus is kinda continue working with these our students, working with our new interns to really kinda continue to develop these skills for these students.

Tessa: 24:35

And with a lot of the political noise that's going on right now, how do you suggest that people get unbiased and factual information? How do you instill that in people?

Aiden: 24:43

So one of the best ways that I've kinda covered is using our website. Using our nonpartisan voting guides is probably one of the best ways that you can find nonpartisan information. There are also various other nonpartisan groups that we use and we also provide for students on our resource page where you can find additional information regarding candidates, elections. But it really kinda starts with making making that conscious effort to find the nonpartisan information because it can be really easy to just fall into the news. And some people don't even know the difference between partisan and nonpartisan information.

Aiden: 25:13

They don't know what that means. And so, you know, part of our work here is showing, like, hey. You can't actually talk about political candidates without taking a political side and present these candidates in a fair and equal way to allow anyone that's going to, you know, vote in election a fair understanding of both candidates and really kind of figuring out what they identify with and what, you know, they would like to support come election day when they have to fill out their ballots. And so that's, really kind of at the the bottom of our mission is is kind of getting students familiar with what nonpartisan information looks like and providing them the resources where they can find that nonpartisan information.

Jordan: 25:45

I wanna go a little off script here from what the talking points we usually use are. Just do your research. You know, actually, just go ahead and seek out, like, partisan information. Read the left news. Read the right news.

Jordan: 25:55

The truth is probably somewhere in the middle. We're college students. We do a lot of research. We do a lot of studying, and we're smart enough to know when something is a bent. Because even a lot of these nonpartisan voter guides, they're gonna have a bent.

Jordan: 26:06

And you can usually tell if you're looking for it. You just gotta look around and realize what you're reading and come to your own conclusions at the end of the day. We all know that what politicians say is not what they're going to do. You know? We see that all the time with every election, and it's just about being educated and being self aware and not taking everything at face value.

Jordan: 26:26

And I think a big part about getting along with people with other political opinions is just trying to recognize that most people you disagree with are coming from a good place. At the end of the day, I feel like, truly, that we all want to reach the same end state and that there's generally just different paths we believe will get us there. And I know there are some people out there with bad intentions, but you can usually tell that right away. But I'm just saying it would help a lot of people realize when they disagree with someone and they know they're not a bad person inherently, they're coming to it from a good place and that you can just have a normal conversation, and you're going to catch more flies with honey that way.

Tessa: 27:06

Right. I think it's so important to listen to each other in this time. Also, it makes it so hard when algorithms are just feeding you confirmation bias and what you wanna hear. So I think it's important to seek out information from the other side, seek out bipartisan information so you can make an informed decision in the end. How can students get involved with MSU vote?

Aiden: 27:27

So the first way that they can kinda find us is using our branding website, which can be found atmsuvote.msu.edu. Another way is something amazing that we also were able to launch this year with our website is our new MSU vote email, which is [e-mail]. And using that email, you can submit us any questions you have about the upcoming election. We can literally walk you along with the information you provide us, where you can register, you know, where your precinct's gonna be at. We can help you all along the way to finding out everything you need to know ahead of the election day and for also just any general questions you have.

Aiden: 28:00

Yeah.

Jordan: 28:00

We also got Instagram, m s u vote on Instagram. Aidan creates a lot of pretty graphics that we can post on there with all the details of our events.

Aiden: 28:09

The other thing I would like to highlight with the website is for students that are interested in finding events that they can go to, where they can learn a little bit more about, you know, the things that we support or just, you know, find ways to come find us at events. We do have an important dates calendar located at the bottom of our home page. That is a live calendar that is constantly updated on a weekly basis with any upcoming events that we're either in support of, we're sponsoring, or we're going to be attending. And there are events that we feel will support students in learning a little bit more about navigating civil discourse, getting through the election season with mindfulness, navigating election stress, where to find nonpartisan information, how they can meet with us at our committee meetings. All of that can be found on our calendar with registration links.

Aiden: 28:49

One thing I'd like

Jordan: 28:50

to add is just, you know, there's a lot of groups registering people on campus, and we just wanna encourage everyone. If you register to vote with someone that's not a clerk's office or a government official, please go to the Michigan Secretary of State's website. They have a feature where you can check to see if you're registered. And it's not to say anything negative about these groups. It's just they handle so many registrations that they might not have, like, filed them all correctly or in the right city.

Jordan: 29:12

So we just wanna make sure that everyone who thinks they're registered confirms that they're registered before they show up the polls on election day.

Tessa: 29:18

That is fantastic advice, and I'm going to be checking my registration. Perfect. And that's it for today's episode. Thank you to everyone involved in making this podcast what it is. If you like what you've heard, come back next week.

Tessa: 29:30

I'm Tessa Crush. You've been listening to Exposure. This was this week's episode of Exposure. Keep in mind that the views and opinions discussed on Exposure are those of the guests and do not necessarily reflect those of the staff at Impact 89 FM. If you're interested in going back and listening to our archive of stories, feel free to check out our website at impact89fm.org.

Tessa: 29:52

And of course, if you're interested in what's going on next week, can tune back in and we'll see you back here. You've been listening to Exposure.