Voting can be difficult for college students. After the hurricane it is even more difficult. – Mother Jones

Asheville, North Carolina immediately after Hurricane Helen in late September.Mike Stewart/AP

In August political science Professor Ashley Moragues began the fall semester at the University of North Carolina at Asheville with “grand plans” to engage students in electoral politics. As director of UNC Asheville Votes, a nonpartisan student-run group, Moragues planned for the fall to be “Civics Semester— including voter registration events, meet-and-greets with local candidates, and a “Party at the Polls” in Reed Plaza with food and live music.

For students age group from historically low turnoutThe effort was not an abstract exercise, however: North Carolina is a crucial swing state that is likely to be won by a razor-thin margin. Donald Trump won the state by less than 75,000 votes in 2020 and is now led by Kamala Harris about 1 percentage pointaccording to the latest polls. In other words, every vote counts in North Carolina.

Then, in late September, Hurricane Helen hit. The storm has dropped almost 14 inches of rain in Asheville, leading to flooding of roads and neighborhoods and loss of life almost 100 people throughout the state. UNC Asheville campus 2900 studentselectricity and running water were lost. Students and teachers have moved. Classes have been canceled and will be held virtually for the remainder of the semester.

Now, after Helen, getting to the polls or getting an absentee ballot has become even more difficult for college students in western North Carolina.

This made Moragues’s job more complex and important. Following the campus closure, the university moved its early voting location from the student union to the outskirts of campus, to the health center. Moragues and UNC Asheville Votes are focused on providing virtual resources-website, Instagram pageand an email address where students can submit voting-related questions. “What makes me so happy is how many students, despite everything they have to deal with, ask questions to make sure their ballots actually count,” she says.

Still, she said, it’s hard to say who or how many people the group is reaching. Parts of western North Carolina still no utilities, electricity or Wi-Fi. And many students understandably have more pressing concerns than just how to vote. “They lost their homes and their loved ones,” Moragues says. “And they’re just trying to figure out how to survive right now.”

As a political science professor and Asheville voting leader, Moragues is uniquely positioned to explain the challenges this key demographic has faced since Helen. And she understands, at least in part, what they’re going through: When I spoke with her earlier this month, on the first day of early voting in North Carolina, she had no reliable internet or potable water at her home in Asheville. spent the previous weeks “hopping” and visiting family in other parts of North Carolina and Georgia.

Here’s an edited and condensed version of our conversation:

Due to a break in studies at the university and the transition to distance learning,It’s almost an echo of what happened when Covid hit. Did the pandemic help you prepare for this? Does this sound familiar?

Yes and no. In the 2020 election cycle, we had to completely rethink how we interact with voters on campus. Since 2020, I’ve learned a lot about how to engage people remotely.

The students taught me how to use social media more effectively. Through trial and error, we’ve figured out how to best communicate complex election information via email. Our website was ready to go. We had an Instagram page ready. We didn’t have to start from scratch like we did in 2020. So in that regard, despite these really unfortunate and tragic situations, we were prepared to ramp up our election engagement efforts much more quickly than we have in the past.

The problem is that I still don’t have reliable internet at home. I don’t have drinking water at home. Will I be able to teach online? Should I go stay with my family? My students will have problems with utilities and infrastructure. These problems are more serious than I remember from 2020.

What do you mean when you say that students helped you become better at social media?

When I was in college, Facebook was my favorite social network. I graduated from college in 2009. I wasn’t familiar with Instagram Stories and I don’t think I fully realized the extent to which young people get some of their information and news from social media.

The students really taught me how to more effectively communicate useful information on social media in a way that appeals to young people, and how to make things more aesthetically pleasing and more likely to attract attention. I mostly don’t get my news from social media, so it was very helpful for me to have students lead this. I learned as much from them as they did from me.

What are your biggest challenges right now in getting out the vote efforts?

It’s hard to know who we’re reaching. I fear that in our outreach efforts on campus—since they have all been online—we are missing some potential voters in western North Carolina who were hit hardest by these hurricanes.

Our State Board of Elections and the State Legislature have passed list of emergency measures to help voters in western North Carolina have better access to the polls, but these changes are only effective if voters know about them.

And there are people who have much more pressing concerns right now than thinking about the election. They have lost their homes and their loved ones and are now just trying to figure out how to survive. And you know, their voices matter, their voices matter. And I think especially now, we want to hear from people who have that experience, but they may not be getting the information they need or not being able to vote right now.

I was in college during the 2016 election. I requested an absentee ballot in Florida, where I grew up and hoped to vote. It never came. And I just never followed it and never voted. Is there any concern that, after all, these are teenagers or young adults in their early 20s and weare you asking many of them to follow the vote?

It’s certainly true that young people—which I define roughly as ages 18 to 25—have lower voter turnout rates than other demographic groups. But I think there are several reasons why this is the case and why it is unfair to compare younger voters to older groups.

Political science research shows us that voting is a habit. It’s a habit you develop over time, and once you get into this habit, you’ll almost certainly be a reliable voter for the rest of your life. And how can we expect first-time voters to have such habits if they are not legally allowed to exhibit those habits?

There is also a perception that young people are truly apathetic and don’t care about problems, but this is not at all what I see when working with young people in and outside the classroom. Instead, I tend to view this as an access issue. It’s just hard to get involved. There are many rules, deadlines and barriers no matter where you live. Participation in the project requires large start-up costs. And so if you don’t have anyone around to help you navigate it, it can be a big disincentive to vote or otherwise get involved in politics because you just don’t know where to start.

Will UNC Asheville students from other states be able to access absentee ballots mailed from their home states?

The vast majority of our students are North Carolinians. I think this year approx. 13 percent Our students live outside of the US state. This will be approximately 300-400 students. It is difficult to say how many of these students will enroll in North Carolina compared to their home state.

For those students who were on campus and requested an absentee ballot before the hurricane hit, they may have had to evacuate before they received their ballots. It’s hard to say how many students will be affected, but it will almost certainly affect some voters.

The advice we give to these voters is to contact their local or county elections office as soon as possible and request a reissue of their ballot.

Historically, it is common to see lower votes. Did your classes cover disaster-related voter suppression at all?

I teach courses on US elections. We’re talking about barriers to voting, not just existing structures or laws that can make it easier or harder for people to vote, but also socioeconomic factors that can make it harder for some groups of people to vote than others. I have never talked to my students specifically about how disasters and recovery efforts might impact the dynamics, but rest assured that we will once our classes resume.