Eighty percent of Minnesota voters ages 18-24 did not vote in the 2014 midterm election, according to the Minnesota secretary of state. So as the 2016 election draws near, Secretary Steve Simon is doing everything he can to get young people involved.

Inspired by Minnesota’s previous nine consecutive elections at first place in the country for voter turnout, Simon has made it his mission to return to No. 1 this year after the state fell to No. 6 in 2014. Registration efforts have especially targeted college students.

“We were brainstorming about ways to engage younger voters,” Simon said. What his office decided on was the Ballot Bowl, a competition between universities in the state to see which school could register the most students. It ran until the pre-registration deadline on Tuesday.

The University of St. Thomas is not participating in the competition aspect of the Secretary of State’s initiative, but both Undergraduate Student Government and the O’Shaughnessy-Frey Library have taken up campaigns that echo Simon’s ‘get out the vote’ message.

The library teamed up with the Dean of Students Office, Residence Life, Campus Life and Student Affairs to create a one-stop shop webpage for all the voting-related information students may need.

Students could also stop by a voter registration table set up in the library for two weeks starting on National Voter Registration Day on Sept. 27.

Library employees helped register 238 people at the table, said Kari Petryszyn, the electronic resources management specialist at the library and the administrator who spearheaded registration efforts on campus.

Petryszyn said that number is down from the 2012 election, when more than 400 students registered at the library.

“Helping over 200 students is amazing. We really want to be part of the students’ lives and help them get the information they need,” Petryszyn said. “I would be happy even if we would’ve helped one person get registered to vote.”

She said, however, that she cannot necessarily attribute the drop to voter disinterest for the presidential candidates.

“You can’t really speculate on what people are thinking or if they were able to get registered somewhere else,” Petryszyn said, adding that reminders to register online are prevalent and “so in-your-face.”

While the library program registered students to vote, USG’s initiative looked to promote the values of voting in general. USG members have been walking around campus for a week, taking pictures of students who write an answer to the phrase “I will vote because…” written on a whiteboard.

Photos of various students’ reasons for voting were posted on the USG Twitter account.

Jay Copland, USG vice president of academic affairs, wrote on his whiteboard, “I will vote because we must ensure that our voices are heard!”

Bobby Martin, USG vice president of public relations, wrote, “I will vote because there is much more at stake than the presidential race.”

Online voter registration ends tomorrow! #TommiesVote #IWillVoteBecause pic.twitter.com/T8kHm27RCL

— UST Student Gov’t (@UST_USG) October 18, 2016

Secretary Simon also urged young people to vote even if they disliked the nominees at the national level. He said that despite talk about staying home on election day, he still expects high turnout.

“I understand the impulse to stay away from an election because you don’t like the candidate or the campaigns, or you’re disappointed or even disgusted,” Simon said. “I ask people to resist that impulse. Because you’re giving up.”

Simon recalled a t-shirt he saw that read, “Failure to vote is not an act of rebellion. It’s an act of surrender.”

“When you don’t vote, you’re giving up,” Simon continued. “You’re passing your political power onto someone else. When you turn 18, you get a lot of things… You get formal political power. My number one message is to stand up, show up, and be a voter.”

Sophie Carson can be reached at sophia.carson@stthomas.edu.