With Election Day just around the corner, the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) implemented WAC Votes earlier this month to promote voting awareness to student-athletes.
According to a news release from the WAC, WAC Votes is a non-partisan voter awareness program to encourage and support student-athletes, coaches and staff in the upcoming November elections.
UTRGV Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) President and women’s golf senior Rachel Yu said that the initiative for WAC Votes was taken by the WAC SAAC student-athletes.
“Being that it is an election year all those pieces kind of just naturally form together and it was one of the major things on our summer WAC SAAC call agenda,” Yu said. “So, we kind of already knew it was going to be there and it just formed up like that.”
WAC Associate Commissioner of Compliance and Governance Marlon Edge said that the WAC Board, made up of the nine-member institutions, supported the WAC Votes program that was put forth by WAC SAAC.
“Very supportive when the presentation was put forward to them a couple of weeks ago and very willing, again, to see this through with the student-athletes,” Edge said. “It was very good to see our administrators, there was no negative feedback at all from it, it was all positive and very supportive.”
The news release also states that Election Day Nov. 3 would be a day off from non-competition athletic-related activities to give student-athletes, coach and staff time to vote.
UTRGV Coordinator for Student Development Julia Perez said having Nov. 3 off is a move in a positive direction.
“We are really happy that the conference has given November 3rd a mandatory day off,” Perez said. “A lot of our student-athletes are not from the Rio Grande Valley so they will have to request a mail-in ballot, but for those that are from here we will encourage them to go out and vote in person.”
Although international student-athletes cannot vote in U.S. elections, WAC SAAC President Katherine Harston from New Mexico State University said the WAC Votesprogram at each institution will look to engage its international student base on topics such as voter education and resources.
“Resources to where it’s just an important for them,” Harston said. “They might not be US citizens but the educational aspect of voting itself is something that is really important for anybody to know.”
To register to vote, obtain information on requesting an absentee ballot or look for a polling location, visit wacsports.com/wacvotes.
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