The Run-Up Winds Down

With the U.S. presidential election just days away, it's no secret that Pennsylvania remains a crucial battleground. True to its motto, the Keystone State and its 19 electoral votes stand as the most coveted prize for both major party candidates, which accounts for the more than $538 million that both campaigns have funneled into political advertising across the commonwealth this election season. 

At Haverford, a cadre of prepared and enthusiastic voters — a little more than 900 campus residents, most of them students, are registered to vote in Pennsylvania — stand ready to make their voices heard in this consequential election. Among them is Holly Vincent '26, a political science major, field hockey team Captain, and a driving force behind the Tri-Co Voting Challenge, which, borrowing from a more recent contest between Harvard and Yale, asks students across the consortium to sign a digital pledge to vote on Nov. 5. 

"Over the summer, I started to feel that there weren't too many student-led efforts to mobilize before the election," says Vincent, who organized the challenge with classmates Michael Pyo and Abigail Trapp. "The election could very well come down to these [Pennsylvania] counties and students because we're a critical voting bloc."

With extensive support from College administration, mainly from Executive Director of the Center for Peace and Global Citizenship (CPGC) Eric Hartman, Assistant Vice President for Student Diversity, Equity, and Access Raquel Esteves-Joyce, and President Wendy Raymond, Vincent and her partners established the challenge's website and Instagram account. There, students can access information about voter registration deadlines and mail-in ballots while affirming their intention to vote next week. If they're ineligible to do so, students can still commit to remain civically engaged in their communities. 

So far, Vincent says, the challenge has seen promising numbers in the two months it has been up and running. Just shy of 700 students have signed the pledge, with Haverford taking the top spot. Though a prize has yet to be determined for the winning college — the challenge is, after all, focused on engagement over winning — Vincent says President Raymond is willing to consider wearing Swarthmore or Bryn Mawr swag for a few days in the unlikely event that Haverford surrenders its lead. 

A Pivotal Township
Haverford Township, where most of the College sits and where its students are eligible to vote, is more influential when it comes to elections than most people realize, notes Hartman. 

"It's a township of more than 50,000 people," he says. "One of the things I stress when speaking to our students is just how important the township is. If you're thinking about jurisdictional power, Montpelier, the capital of Vermont, is much smaller than that. We're nearly the same size as Harrisburg."  

For the past eight years, Professor of Political Science Zach Oberfield has been working to ensure Haverford students are registered to vote in Pennsylvania — that is, if they'd like to cast their vote here — and to make it easier to vote on campus. Though the College's campus accounts for a broad swath of Haverford Township's 5-3 precinct, it wasn't until 2018 and after three concerted efforts, Oberfield says, that Delaware County leaders agreed to establish a polling place in the Facilities building on the south end of campus. 

Before that, students would have to trek to Coopertown Elementary School, at least a 30-minute walk along busy roads lacking sidewalks. Last spring, the polling location was moved from the Facilities garage to the Douglas B. Gardner '83 Integrated Athletic Center, which means voters can now remain comfortable indoors while waiting to vote. Hartman is also organizing two food trucks to be available along Hall Drive during lunchtime on Election Day. 

In his quest to make voting more accessible for students, Oberfield found eager partners in College neighbors Kay Sweet and Maggie Wright, residents of the Haverford Village community that abuts campus. Their partnership has also included nonpartisan voter registration efforts primarily focused on first-year students during Move-In Day. However, Oberfield, Sweet, Wright, and Marjorie Lane, the spouse of Professor Emeritus of History Roger Lane, have been a constant registration presence in the Dining Center throughout October in the lead-up to last week's voter registration deadline.

During their regular appearances, they help students fill out voter registration forms and avoid any errors that might hold up their registration or force the use of a provisional ballot. Once they're done for the day, Wright and Sweet hand-deliver the forms to the Delaware County Courthouse. 

Despite their roles as Democratic committeepeople, both Sweet and Wright say they are committed to ensuring their registration push remains completely nonpartisan. "That's the most important part of the entire process," Wright says. "We don't do any arm-twisting to get them to register." 

Their efforts have paid off, and by their count, Haverford has 902 registered student voters ready for Election Day. In their near decade of registering Fords to vote, Wright and Sweet say anecdotally that this is the first time they've seen so many sophomores, juniors, and seniors switching their registration to Pennsylvania. "They read it in the newspaper, they see it on television, and they see it on Instagram," Wright says. "Everywhere they look, it says Pennsylvania is the most important state."

Compelled to Act
Haverford students are carrying their campus enthusiasm into the surrounding community. Ben Fitzgerald '26, who says he was galvanized by Donald Trump's conviction on 34 felony counts in New York last May, is among them. The philosophy major says he was deeply concerned about the anti-democratic rhetoric he was hearing from Trump's campaign and felt compelled to act. 

"That's democratic with a small d," Fitzgerald, who is from Connecticut, says. "I think that there's a point where we have to put partisan divides aside and do everything that we can to ensure that a candidate who respects our democracy is put into office."

Over fall break, Fitzgerald spent six of his seven days off hopping into an Uber to canvas for the Harris-Walz campaign around the greater Philadelphia area. By his estimate, he knocked on at least 300 doors across his four-hour shifts, providing campaign and clarifying information for any who greeted him. "Whoever I spoke to, regardless of whether they supported the campaign or not, I made sure they had a voting plan in place and knew where their nearest polling place was," Fitzgerald says. 

Like Vincent, Fitzgerald will be voting in Pennsylvania, though he admits being frustrated that just a few states have a tangible impact on the outcome of federal elections. Through a summer CPGC internship, Fitzgerald worked with the nonpartisan organization FairVote, advocating for ranked choice voting policies that he believes will increase the number of competitive districts in the U.S. Regardless, Fitzgerald says he's grateful for the opportunity to vote in Pennsylvania and hopes that his fellow Fords will do the same and find their own ways to get involved in future election seasons.

"It's very easy to feel hopeless about this election considering all of the political turmoil we've been staring in the face for the past eight years or so," Fitzgerald says. "But I would encourage people to do what they can to get involved, make a difference. It doesn't have to be perfect."