On Community Building Day, Whitworth’s Honors Learning Community set up in and around the HUB to register students to vote. We wanted to raise awareness on campus, as many students we came across were not registered, including the upperclassmen. We also helped students request absentee ballots from other states or change their mailing addresses to express their voice outside their home state. Another goal was the accessibility of voting here on campus. Due to the diverse group of students at Whitworth from all over the country, we have many different opinions and political views. The Honors Learning Community believes everyone should exercise their civic duty and vote because we will grow into influential roles in American politics in the future and today. 

To get students to come to our table, we needed to wrangle them for our cause, and what better way than to set up in the HUB at lunch after Community Building Day? This location allowed us to advertise to most of the student population simultaneously. A poster holder stood inside and asked, “Are you registered to vote?” with a smile on their face and newly acquired information in hand to help put nonregistered students on the path to voter registration. Honors students generated QR codes and put them on posters to hold up and make access even more straightforward. In the case of a student needing more intricate help or simply wanting candy for their registered status, they would be directed to the tech table. 

The table inside the HUB attracted a long line in front of it, especially after people noticed the free candy. This table was where Honors students with laptops helped nonregistered students set up their registrations, absentee ballots, or address changes. Students already registered to vote had to prove it to get their candy. Through this process, we showed Washington State residents how easy it was to access their registration status. We helped many students register for the first time, both in and out of state. We had one person prepared to help anyone from out of state at all times and other people specifically for the Washington residents. We learned how different states’ registration processes worked and how they each have different requirements for both registration and absentee ballots.  

Our act of service may not have been out in the City of Spokane; instead, it was within the Whitworth community. To be in the Whitworth community is to learn, and through being well-informed and knowledgeable on topics like voter registration, we foster an atmosphere of general human flourishing. At face value, voter registration might appear to be a throwaway. Still, it is a process that opens doors of opportunity and self-expression on political issues, whether national, state, or municipal. Issues that matter to a person, like who is on the school board, can only be addressed if you are registered to vote, just like you would for the general or primary elections.  

As Christians, we believe that service will lead to fulfillment because it is what Jesus taught us to do. God wants us to care for his creation; voting is a way to do this. Voicing our opinions, trying to shape our government to serve the most people, and putting people in charge who will support the citizens are all ways to take care of God’s creation by implementing what the community deems best. 

Political participation does not have to be framed like a football game. Even when your side doesn’t win, voting still matters. Elected officials must take your vote into account in their decisions. Sometimes, decisions come down to percentages of a population who think one way. It would serve the country better if we stopped looking at politics as winning and losing but rather as people with different plans to better the nation. Why wouldn’t we want to try to affect these decisions through our political participation? Registering to vote is a way to serve and honor God because how someone votes will influence policy and what the government does to best help people. 

The Honors Learning Community was very excited about continuing this work beyond Community Building Day and using everything we learned to educate more people. The posters we previously used – with QR codes to the Washington State voter registration site and resources for absentee ballots or registering in other states – await approval from ASWU. The goal is to get these approved and post them around campus for their informative value and students’ convenience. Our class wants to bring this topic forward to the rest of Whitworth more meaningfully, not only in the upcoming presidential election but in the more local, municipal politics that feel more attainable to someone who might be eighteen and wondering how they can make a difference. 

We talked about and came to a collective understanding of how some people choose not to vote for various reasons. We aim to address these reasons in a sensitive, understanding, and productive way. We want civil discourse regarding such a delicate matter and support people in deciding whether to vote. In doing so, we hope to open up the discussion of voting as a more universal and accepted conversation. Opinions stem from deeply rooted beliefs based on experiences that we cannot discount, and rather than trying to force an issue one way or another, it is vital to establish trust and develop connections between students. Voter registration and voting are not topics that go away, but they can be examined through understanding eyes in an empathetic yet logical manner to produce human flourishing. The natural extension of producing human flourishing is honoring God. Serving His creation does not mean that we try to change the opinion or control the actions of the creation; it means that we provide information, support, and productive discussion as a society.  

Whitworth University promotes six pathways of community service: Community-Engaged Learning and Research, Policy and Governance, Community Organizing and Activism, Entrepreneurship and Corporate Social Responsibility, Philanthropy, and Direct Service. Students were encouraged to learn which of these they enjoyed the most so that in the future, they could continue to serve the community in the way they would make the most impact. After Community Building Day, we were tasked with identifying which of these pathways we participated in through our event. Through this class and our hope to educate students, we are already focusing on Community-Engaged Learning and Research. The topic easily falls into Policy and Governance, as well as Community Organizing and Activism. These pathways are the foundation of how we, as the Whitworth community, can continue to serve. Our Honors Learning Group wants to embody a community that lives by our core values of honoring God, following Christ, and serving humanity.