Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 5, and the Washington University in St. Louis Athletic Complex is ready to welcome students, faculty, staff and neighbors who are registered to vote in St. Louis County.
For the first time, the Medical Campus also will host a polling place at the McDonnell Medical Sciences Building, 4565 McKinley Ave., for voters registered in the city.
Polls open at 6 a.m Tuesday and will remain open until all voters in line by 7 p.m. have voted.
Missouri voters must bring a photo ID that is issued by the state of Missouri (e.g., a driver’s license or state ID) or by the U.S. government (e.g. a passport). For more information about voter identification in Missouri, visit the Missouri Secretary of State’s website. Eligible voters who do not have a proper form of ID may cast a provisional ballot on Election Day.
Voters can visit the St. Louis County Board of Elections or the St. Louis Board of Election Commissioners websites to find sample ballots, polling locations and additional information. Voters who live in surrounding counties or in Illinois may visit their county election boards or the Vote 411 website for election information.
Otto Brown, civic engagement manager at the Gephardt Institute for Civic and Community Engagement, said WashU is prepared for an influx of voters, including many students who will be voting for the first time. Gephardt staff will be on site to answer student questions.
“We’re going to see a big turnout on Election Day on campus, and so we have done everything we can to prepare,” Brown said. “We’ve added extra tables for voters to cast their ballots, and the St. Louis County Board of Elections has assigned a number of highly trained election judges to our polling place.”
Missouri introduced no-excuse absentee voting in 2022, and thousands of voters already have voted at their local library, election board and other polling locations. Still, Brown advised voters to give themselves plenty of time to cast their ballots, the longest in recent history. He also recommended that voters visit their election board website to check wait times at the Athletic Complex and other polling places.
“Be prepared for lines and know your ballot,” Brown said. “There are a lot of terrific nonpartisan resources like Vote 411 and Ballotpedia where you can learn what’s on the ballot.”
The Gephardt Institute also will host a Party at the Polls all day with free food, games , student performances, activities and student-designed “I Voted” stickers. Everyone is invited, including students who voted in St. Louis city or absentee and those ineligible to vote. In the days following the election, the Gephardt Institute will host post-election events and debriefs. The Center for Counseling and Psychological Services also will host spaces for students who are experiencing election-related stress. For a complete list of programs, visit the Gephardt Institute website.
WashU is already a national leader in voter engagement. The student voter turnout rate in 2020 was 70.8%; the national average among U.S. college students was 66%. This year, the Gephardt Institute set a goal of 72% voter turnout. To that end, Gephardt’s Engage Democracy initiative and WashU Votes, the institute’s student-led initiative to promote peer-to-peer voter engagement and education, answered questions about voting registration and state ID laws, hosted experts to speak on a variety of election-related topics, notarized out-of-state ballots and established voter engagement hubs in schools and departments across the Danforth and Medical campuses. It has been exhausting work for Brown, who served as co-chair of WashU Votes as an undergraduate in 2022, but also incredibly rewarding.
“The research shows that people who vote once are 50% more likely to vote in the next election,” said Brown, who served as an election judge in 2022 and has notarized ballots since 2020. “We get to start the cycle here at WashU, and that’s a great privilege and an honor. No question, politics is tense and sometimes scary. That’s real. But voting isn’t something that everyone is able to do. So there is a great joy in being able to exercise that right.”
