Hofstra Votes tabled for the last time for the semester on Monday, April 14.

Hofstra Votes took to another tabling event on Monday, April 14, in the atrium of the Sondra and David S. Mack Student Center to help students stay informed on developments from the federal government and how to contact their elected officials. 

Efforts by the nonpartisan Hofstra Votes campaign are associated with the Office of Government and Community Affairs which is part of Hofstra University’s administration. The campaign began in 2018 and its creation was partly motivated by the requirement of universities to provide students with opportunities to register to vote. 

Political science professor Rosanna Perotti teaches classes on voter behavior at Hofstra. Perotti’s students have participated in tabling for Hofstra Votes along with fellows from Hofstra’s Center for Civic Engagement (CCE).

Monday’s Hofstra Votes tabling differed from others that the organization has held in that it focused on education above voter registration. According to Perotti, Hofstra Votes aims to keep students civically engaged even in a year when there is no presidential election, i.e. an off year. Without a presidential or a midterm election in 2025 – an “off-off year” – the tabling focused more on providing students with information on changes by the federal government and contacting elected officials. Fliers pertaining to contacting elected officials have also been handed out at previous Hofstra Votes tabling events.

“Students have been taking those fliers because that’s another form of civic engagement that we hope that people will take advantage of,” Perotti said. “Public officials listen to that stuff.” 

This semester, Hofstra Votes’ efforts focused on educating students on contacting officials and making proposals in Washington, D.C., pertaining to the right to vote. For instance, a large focus has been placed on the SAVE Act. Otherwise known as the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, the SAVE Act was introduced in 2024 by Representative Chip Roy to prevent non-citizens from voting. So far, the House of Representatives has passed the act and now requires people to provide proof of United States citizenship when registering to vote.

Information was also provided on an executive order by President Donald Trump requiring federal agencies as well as state and local election officials to change election rules and practices. Part of this also includes requiring people to provide proof of citizenship, such as a passport or birth certificate, when registering to vote.

“Now, a lot of people don’t have that documentation … people need to know that that has been issued by the White House,” Perotti said. “And if they like that, that’s great, but if they don’t like that, they may want to tell somebody about it. We are informing people about developments in the right to vote.”

Senior public relations major Karoline Otavalo found Hofstra Votes’ tabling helpful because of how the information was presented.

“I think we need more of this, actually,” Otavalo said. “I love how everything is so digestible, and I love the colors; it’s very calling.”

Senior political science major and CCE Fellow Hamna Haque has been working with Hofstra Votes for the past two years. Haque tabled on Monday and discussed the speed at which developments are occurring politically. Fact sheets on developments in policy and the right to vote were made earlier this month and were available at the table. 

“They might already be outdated just in that timespan, and it’s moving very fast,” Haque said. “We’d like to help people get their voice out as quickly as they can.”

Junior psychology and English double major Aliza Kazmi has also tabled for Hofstra Votes several times and spoke about the difference in tabling between this semester and last.

“This is definitely different than what we did last semester because last semester we were really focused on the general election,” Kazmi said. “Now that that’s over, people don’t really realize that there are still things that they can do to be civically engaged. And so this is why we’re tabling this semester – to show people that it’s important to still stay engaged, still be informed and to also let them know that there are ways to contact their elected officials.”

Hofstra was named a 2025-26 Voter-Friendly Campus by the Fair Elections Center in Washington, D.C. The Fair Elections Center is a nonpartisan organization involved in protecting democracy through efforts based on voting rights and civic engagement. Its “Campus Vote Project” works with universities, community colleges, faculty, students and election officials to make student voting easier and help campuses provide students with the information they need to register and vote.

“I’m proud of us for reaching that accomplishment,” Kazmi said. “I know last semester we were able to help around 600 or even more community members by registering them to vote or just answering their questions, and I think that’s really special and not every campus can do that.”

Hofstra Votes has been tracking their encounters with students for the past two years. According to an email from Perotti, an encounter is “an interaction in which student volunteers either register a voter, direct a student to a voting site or direct a student to the absentee ballot website of his or her state.” During the 2023-24 school year, Hofstra Votes counted 582 encounters and in just the fall semester of 2024 they recorded 626 encounters.

The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at Tufts University gathers data on youth voter turnout in years of presidential and midterm elections. Hofstra is a part of the study and receives the university’s statistics. 

For the 2016 presidential election, approximately 57.2% of eligible voters at Hofstra cast a ballot. That figure rose to approximately 74% for the 2020 presidential election. The national youth voter turnout also rose between 2016 and 2020 and Hofstra’s numbers were above the national percentages in both years. The national youth voter turnout was 43.4% in 2016 and 52.5% in 2020. 

Perotti encouraged students to remain civically engaged and mentioned multiple ways to do so.

“All the forms of activity like posting and learning and putting your feet down on the pavement are useful,” Perotti said. “But unless you close that circle by voting or writing to them or calling them, you can’t expect them to know what you want, and that’s your right: to let them know what you want.”

This was the final tabling date for Hofstra Votes this semester. More information on Hofstra Votes can be found on Instagram at @hofstravotes and on Hofstra’s website.