With 25 days left until the upcoming 2024 presidential election, the 5Cs are brimming with voter education events and outreach. Things such as tents offering free boba and ice cream for registered voters have become a common sight. Most recently, on Oct. 9, Claremont McKenna College’s (CMC) Parents Field was awash with red-and-white stripes for the 5C wide Voting Carnival.
Game booths and food stands decorated the far corner of the grounds. Pop hits blasted from loudspeakers, enticing passersby to learn about voter registration.
The event boasted churros, boba, a Kona Ice truck, civics-themed carnival games and a prize raffle. Volunteers from Every Vote Counts Claremont and the Claremont Initiative for Voter Engagement Strategies (CIVES) helped students navigate the online registration and absentee ballot process.
Sophie Jorgenson CM ’28, a volunteer with Every Vote Counts, explained that though voting registration deadlines have already passed in 10 states, those in the other 40 can still register to vote in time for the upcoming presidential election.
“I actually registered to get my absentee ballot through Every Vote Counts before I joined [the organization],” Jorgenson said. “For a lot of students here, it’s their first time voting … It was [also] my first time trying to deal with an absentee ballot and voting from a different state. So we… help people with those challenges.”
Other students shared similar motivations for attending and volunteering.
“A lot of people stay informed but then aren’t able to vote, whether that be because of registration or other guidelines that they weren’t quite sure of. I think it’s great that they’re doing this at a college campus and getting more information out there,” Celine Aoki SC ’26, Scripps junior class president, said.
The carnival featured state-fair style games with a civic twist. Citizenship exam cornhole, local, state and federal Connect 4, voting rights darts and constitutional water pong, or con-pong, were among the attractions. The games exercised students’ basic knowledge of the U.S. government.
Aoki volunteered to run Con-Pong, a riff on classic cup pong, where participants answered Constitution-related questions in order to earn a shot at landing a ping pong ball in the cups.
“A lot of people stay informed but then aren’t able to vote, whether that be because of registration or other guidelines that they weren’t quite sure of. I think it’s great that they’re doing this at a college campus and getting more information out there.”
The games were part of the carnival’s broader mission to encourage civic engagement. 5C students had different impressions of the levels of political engagement at their respective schools.
“In groups, people will bring up [politics] and it is definitely a thing [at CMC],” attendee Lucas Williams CM ’28 said. “You’ll see resources to help you with voting, which is very insightful,”
Every Vote Counts Claremont, Kravis Lab and CIVES regularly visits each of the five campuses to display registration information and help answer voting questions. The organizations monitor the number of registration tables at every campus, and Every Vote Counts noted that Harvey Mudd College has lower engagement compared to the other schools.
“One of the challenges we face is Mudd students,” Jorgenson said. “There tends to be a lot less support … There’s a lot of tabling on the other four campuses. So we’re trying to increase engagement at Mudd and hopefully this event will draw some students.”
Aoki said the 5Cs provide a great environment for political engagement, with many students being well-informed and eager to expand their knowledge.
“I feel like [5C students] are very in tune with what’s going on nationwide and internationally,” she said. “I feel like it’s a very intelligent community that is very focused on politics, more so than I’ve been around in the past. I feel like everyone has very strong opinions and is very well informed in their own ways.”
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