College students turned out to vote this year in higher numbers than ever before. Student organizers, faculty and campus organizations helped students through the voting process by making sure they knew how, when and where to drop their ballots. On election night, it was clear that Biden had swept Oregon in a landslide; 58% of the vote went to Biden, and 39% went to Trump.
The state of Oregon ended up with approximately 81% voter turnout, and Lane County had 82% turnout, according to the Oregon Secretary of State website.
Jude Stone, a student leader with the Oregon Student Public Interest Research Group chapter at UO, said he has seen a huge rise in student voter turnout lately.
“We know that our generation is the largest and most diverse group of potential voters in the country,” Stone said. “So we think it’s really important to recognize the fact that we have the power to elect the next generation of leaders who care about the things we do and who will fight for our version of the future.”
OSPIRG is a non-partisan advocate for the public interest that aims to find common ground between parties and effectively make change. Its most recent campaign focused on organizing a final push to help young voters cast their ballots, and preliminary surveys indicate that the youth voter turnout in Oregon increased from 12% in 2016 to 18% in 2020.
In addition to the New Voters Project, OSPIRG also participated in a competition between PAC-12 schools to see which university could achieve the highest voter turnout and most plans to vote. Stone said a plan to vote is when a student has an exact day and time they plan to drop their ballot off.
“There’s a lot of requirements and deadlines to keep in mind, so we just try to simplify the process,” Stone said.
After the election, Stone said OSPIRG will spend the rest of the term focusing on other campaigns, such as 100% renewable energy, wildlife over waste and affordable textbooks.
“We’re really excited about segueing into the other work that we do, which is more on a local level,” Stone said. “We’re excited to use the excitement that people have for being engaged and then go back to work on the other really important issues that we normally do.”
Another non-partisan student group on campus is Leading Women of Tomorrow, which UO senior Hadley Weiss helped to start this fall. She said the group is about building professional skills, finding opportunities, networking and empowering women regardless of their political affiliation.
“It’s very much about solving the gender gap in elected officials by empowering and encouraging the younger generation,” Weiss said. “We are going to encourage young women to pursue these careers in politics and public service because that is often not something that women are socialized to do.”
Weiss said it was an amazing moment in history getting to watch Vice President-elect Kamala Harris address the country on Saturday night. She said she appreciated the fact that Harris wore white in honor of suffragettes, and spoke on behalf of the young women and girls in the country.
“For our group, this is truly a moment of accomplishment,” Weiss said. “I think it’s definitely something that was a sign of real encouragement for our members.”
As for partisan issues, the UO College Democrats and the UO College Republicans have been hard at work recruiting students and encouraging them to vote for certain candidates on the state and national level. UO College Republicans Political Director Isaiah De Alba said his group has gained quite a few students this term, despite the challenges brought on by COVID-19.
“What I’m seeing is not so much a result from specifically our club, but just younger people influencing one another,” De Alba said. “I think people in our club do that a lot, because there are a lot of people in our club who are openly Republican.”
While the UO Republicans would normally go knocking door to door to campaign, this election season they have pivoted to literature drops, leaving informational pamphlets on people’s doorsteps so they do not have to interact with them face to face. In addition to lit drops, the group has phone banked and tabled outside the EMU to answer questions the UO community may have about their party.
After the election, De Alba said he plans to find nearby organizations or campaigns for the UO Republicans to become politically involved in. But for now, the group does not have any rallies or protests planned.
“We’re playing it slow and seeing what happens because we don’t want to send people out to go do things and put them in danger,” De Alba said. “Things are kind of strange right now.”
The UO College Democrats held an on-campus event the day before the election, featuring Representative Peter DeFazio, newly elected Secretary of State Shemia Fagan, Senator Ron Wyden, State Treasurer Tobias Read and Senator Jeff Merkley, all of whom were elected to office on Nov. 3. The candidates gave speeches and encouraged students who had not cast their ballot yet to do so.
In his opening remarks, DeFazio referenced a John Hopkins analysis that said Trump’s unmasked rallies have resulted in 30,000 COVID-19 cases and 700 COVID-19-related deaths.
“Donald Trump and his cronies are the most corrupt administration in the history of the United States of America,” DeFazio said to the crowd. “This has to stop and it stops tomorrow with election day.”
Fagan talked about how mail-in voting is the most “boring topic in Oregon politics,” because it has worked so well for all parties and candidates in Oregon for years.
“But this cycle, of course, the president has decided to make it an issue,” Fagan said. “Claims of widespread voter fraud are a myth, and they are a myth spread by people who want to make it harder for people like you to vote.”
The state of Oregon used to almost exclusively vote Republican, but has been voting for Democratic presidential candidates since 1984. Oregon has seven electoral votes in the Electoral College, but current projections have it gaining an eighth vote for the 2024 presidential election, according to a report conducted by Election Data Services.
Although election results were not yet finalized, a Rally for Democracy was held the day after Election Day at the Wayne L. Morse Federal Courthouse on 8th Ave. and Ferry St. The event was organized by the Community Alliance of Lane County, and featured speakers, singers and dancers all emphasizing the right to vote.
Among those in attendance were the Raging Grannies of Eugene, a local activist group that goes to protests and sings about various issues facing society. During the rally they broke into a song “Climate Change is Real,” waving flags and signs that drew attention to their message.
“Our country is pretty effed up, don’t you think?” said Trudy Maloney, a Raging Granny wrapped in a rainbow cape.
UO College Democrats President Tristan Waits said the UO Democrats are hopeful and excited about Biden’s win, but their work is far from over.
“The feel of the group is pretty unanimous in the way that we are more so celebrating a Trump loss than a Biden win,” Waits said. “Just because Donald Trump is out of office doesn’t remove the systemic racism in this country, the problems facing immigrants, issues facing healthcare, the environment, all that.”
Waits said the work UO Dems will be doing post-election includes lobbying in Salem and holding town halls with elected representatives. He said he noticed a huge uptick in student political interest, and one would be “hard-pressed” to find someone who considers themselves apolitical. However, he said he thinks there will be a lag in action post-election due to how burned out students feel.
“In regards to Biden winning, I don’t think there’s anybody on our executive board that will try and pretend like Biden and Kamala Harris are the liberal progressives that we need right now,” Waits said. “But I think we are all once again overjoyed that Trump has lost.
A Black Lives Matter sign rests against the walls of the federal courthouse in Eugene. Black Unity hosts an event on Nov. 8, 2020, in Eugene, Ore. to talk as a community in the aftermath of the election. People in Eugene, Ore. celebrate President-elect Joe Biden’s victory on the weekend of Nov. 7, 2020. (Madi Mather/Emerald)