Awareness of campus voting stations affecting over 1 million students

For the 2015 federal election, Elections Canada piloted campus poll stations in advance of election day. However, the day before the poll stations were set to open, Be the Vote noticed a lack of public awareness surrounding the existence of these accessible voting locations. Historically, voting while away at university has been a barrier to students voting. The campus poll locations enabled anyone to vote at them, regardless of where they were registered.

To help spread the word about the campus polls, Be the Vote and Vote Savvy sent out a news release on the morning of the first campus voting day. The press picked up the story, as Be the Vote’s website traffic increased substantially that day, and Be the Vote was interviewed by CBC News Manitoba, CBC Radio Toronto, Yahoo Canada News, Vancouver’s CKNW AM 980, and was mentioned by the Winnipeg Free Press.

Be the Vote’s online news release received over 639 views between October 5-8 and the website received 1,345 visits over the same period. Be the Vote also created posts on Facebook and Twitter which were shared and retweeted 4202 times and reached almost 270,000 people.

Media coverage

October 5, 2015 – CBC News: Canada Election 2015 Special campus and youth centre polling station open
October 5, 2015 – Winnipeg Free Press: Voting easier for university students
October 6, 2015 – Yahoo News: “Pop-up” voting stations target students, Aboriginals
October 6, 2015 – Be the Vote’s Katie Amodeo discusses the youth vote on CKNW AM 980
October 7, 2015 – The Manitoban: Get out the youth vote
October 8, 2014 – CBC News: U of M uses golf cart to get students to vote in pop-up station

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