Illini Vote hosted a block party outside the Illini Union Tuesday night with several RSOs to encourage University students to vote in the upcoming election. RSO tables and political signs lined the north end of the Main Quad.
Madigan Hoffman, senior in LAS, said the party’s goal was to get students excited, be a resource and get the community involved.
“We just want to get students ingrained in our community,” Hoffman said. “We want to expose ourselves to students so they know if they have any voting questions to let us know.”
Some organizations present included Illinois Coalition Assisting Undocumented Students Education, Association of Minorities in Political Science, Society of Women in Public Affairs, Social Justice Initiative and Illini Pride.
In addition to those organizations, a photo booth was available for students, as was a live DJ. The party also offered pumpkin painting and lawn sign decorating.
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Sameer Abbassi, junior in LAS and member of the SJI, said they look to ensure any issue across the community has a social justice twist.
“What we want to do is make people aware of the fact that you should (vote),” Abbasi said. “There are various issues that may not be pertinent to you specifically, but it may be pertinent to other people.”
Abbasi added that the SJI wants people to understand what their vote means. They aim to help people understand what social justice issues they feel are important and to show what they stand for on Nov. 5.
“There’s some people who may be undocumented citizens who want to be able to participate in civic life,” Abbasi said. “They are somebody that we can reach through this block party as well. Or somebody who may feel like their issues that they feel are important in the election aren’t being focused on as much as they would want to be.”
In the 2020 election, only two-thirds of Illinois students voted. This year, Illini Vote wanted to increase that number; they believed getting RSOs and hosting a block party would help.
“Voting on our campus is so easy in comparison to other campuses,” Hoffman said. “We want to make sure that students are not only registered, but they’re casting their vote on Nov. 5 on Election Day.”
Hoffman also stated that 11,000 people walk through the Union daily, and they wanted to expose more people to the Union and give students a fun reminder to register to vote.
“We have a lot of students that walk through here every day,” Hoffman said. “Might as well spend five minutes voting.”
