Meet The College Student Helping Ensure Her Classmates Go To The Polls

By De Elizabeth


In the months leading up to the 2016 Presidential Election, Maya Patel discovered she was really, really good at getting people excited about voting.


Shortly right after kicking off her freshman year at the University of Texas at Austin that fall, she enlisted as a Volunteer Deputy Registrar (VDR), which allowed her to register fellow classmates to vote in the upcoming election. Within a month, she had helped over 250 classmates and peers sign up.


“I loved helping students figure out register, why as well as how to actually vote, and giving them nonpartisan voting information,” Patel, right now a senior majoring in chemistry and recipient of the 2019 MTV Leaders for Change grant, told MTV News. “I wanted to calculate ways that I may step up my involvement.”


Today, she is the Texas State Coordinator and Chair of the Student Advisory Board for the Campus Vote Project, a business that aims to institutionalize democratic engagement on higher education campuses. In her role, Patel serves as a link between students and community businesses that work on voting rights issues and accommodates promote voting access on campuses across the state and nation. At UT, she also works closely with TX Votes, a student-run corporation striving to assist other students with the voting process, while inspiring the full campus community to be civically engaged.


Patel’s work at UT has made voting more obtainable — and easier to understand — for the system’s 50,000+ enrolled students. She created and piloted a classroom voter registration program, which allowed students to register without disruption to their schedules. “That can be a challenge at UT once some of those classrooms have 500 students in them and you also only have 50 minutes or less...To get all the students registered to vote,” Patel explained. “So we figured out what worked and what didn't. For the 2018 election cycle, we went into over 300 classrooms and registered students in class — anywhere from a 15-person class to a 500-person class. That proved to be our most efficient effective method of reaching students.”


Yet Patel is aware that registration is only half the battle for increasing voting numbers; that’s why she also led the task to prepare construct a second on-campus polling location for the 2018 midterm elections at the university’s Austin campus. “In 2016, we saw lines that wrapped around the one on-campus polling location,” she recalled, adding that at one point, students were waiting for more than three hours. “I saw so several students leave because they...Didn't have time for that.”


Putting in the work to help young people feel supported at the polls is paying off: a record-number of 18 to 35-year-olds registered to vote in Travis County, Texas, ahead of the 2018 midterm elections, making them the biggest block of registered voters in the county. “This was super exciting,” Patel mentioned. “For a long time right now, we've known that 18 to 29-year-olds are currently the largest block of voters in the nation, although it's really exhilarating that right now they're also the biggest block of registered voters in Travis County. That shows that they're taking action on this immense quantity of power that they have.”


While in a recent phone interview with MTV News, Patel spoke further about the ways in which young folks are fighting for voting access, and also the huge impact that’s felt any time students work with each other towards a stronger democracy.


MTV News: What are some obstacles that students face any time it comes to registering to vote?


Patel: Texas is a really tough and unique state; there really are many factors that affect students' ability to vote. For one...The deadline to register is onth before every election. That proves to be tough at schools because students typically come to campus in late August. Once there's an election in November, the registration deadline is the initial beginning week of October. Effectively, we have about a month immediately after each person gets settled to register. The same goes for primaries, which are constantly in March, and the deadline for that is the initial starting week of February. Students typically don't come back [from winter break] up until around the 20th of January. So that only gives us a number of weeks to get each person registered — so you've got to re-register every time you move.


In addition, people can't just register other people to vote in Texas. You need to be a Volunteer Deputy Registrar, or VDR, and that requires training. It differs county by county, and for each county...You have to redo that training with a...Specific process. You've got to turn forms in to the tax office within five days — not five agency days, yet five days. We register a lot of voters over the weekend or on Fridays, and that demonstrates that those weekend days count towards as soon as we need to turn in our forums. A lot of students don't have cars to get to the tax office. We had to develop a system in which there’s a VDR who has a vehicle, who can turn in forms that have been passed off to them by other VDRs who don't have cars.


MTV News: And what about issues at the polling place? What challenges do students experience there?


Patel: In this state, we have voter ID laws [requiring particular forms of identification]. There really are very specific documents you need categorize in attempt to actually vote, which carries a Texas driver's license, passport, or some order kind of Texas government-issued ID. It does not include a student ID, which is unfortunate. Out-of-state students who desire to vote in Texas need to prepare ensure they have their passport, plus a lot of students keep their passport at residence — or don't have one. As a substitute, they require to calculate how to fill out the Reasonable Impediment Declaration and get option forms of ID, which is a big pain in the butt.


On top of that, a lot of universities do not actually have a polling location on their campus. At UT, we're lucky to right now have two, yet that's not habitually a guarantee. We’ve had elections where we had one day of early voting on campus, or did not have an on-campus polling location.


Several college students don't have cars or don't have access to cars. In some cities, it could take students a hour each way to the nearest polling location by way of the public transportation — or there’s no public transportation at all. Students are busy. School is a priority. We’re strapped for time... All of that makes for extra barriers once it comes to voting.


MTV News: What are some strategies you have used sort in attempt to get people excited about voting?


Patel: [TX Votes] is a very nonpartisan company, and we are very strict about being nonpartisan. That has allowed us to get into a lot of those spaces, like classrooms. …. We have to be very cautious that we're not leaning one way or the other, or that people don't perceive us as leaning one way or the other at all.


UT is a school of 52,000 people, so it’s impossible for our small little order of TX Votes to reach each person. Yet we created something called the Civic Engagement Alliance, which is an alliance of over 110 student businesses —  everything from cultural to professional societies, from social corporations to Greek life. By joining, these groups commit to having at least one VDR in their business and helping members register to vote and actually vote. .... This has been a really efficient effective method to reach a lot of students.


And we have fun events. Throughout the 2018 [Midterm] Elections, we hosted an event called VoteFest, where we had local bands play in the West Mall, which is an outdoors space right next to one of our polling locations. ... We had pizza and breakfast tacos and some companies tabling at the event. We were just attempting to bring attention to the fact that there was an election going on and what the issues were while attempting to prepare it fun, so students could listen to music as soon as they waited in line [to vote].


MTV News: How have your fellow students reacted to the work you’ve been doing on campus?


Patel: I've been at it for three as well as one half years right now, and Once I first began, TX Votes was so small. There were maybe 10 super-active members, yet as I've gotten more involved, I've done increasingly things, and derived a lot of press and media coverage. I think folks are seeing the work that I do...Which makes them desire to be more involved...To help their communities become more civically engaged.


MTV News: What would you mention to someone who thought their vote didn’t matter?


Patel: I'll often have students come up to me and mention, ‘Oh, well, I don't really care about [politics]’ or ‘I don't make a difference,’ yet, ultimately, everything that someone cares about is tied back to voting. In the event you notified me, ‘I really adore going to Zilker Park on the weekends,’ I'd mention, ‘Well, that is affected by your local elections, and some days we have propositions on the ballot that affects the funding for the park service in Austin.’ If someone informed me they cared about dogs, I would talk about animal rights and leash laws, or if someone notified me they admired playing video games, I would mention, ‘Prices are really connected to taxes, and taxes are connected to voting and the elected officials that you bring into it.’


MTV News: What's the next step for you? Where do you visualize yourself right after graduation?


Patel: I graduate this December. I currently work part-time with Campus Vote Project because the Texas State Coordinator, and that will become my full-time role. Long-term, I eventually wish to go to law school and get a master's in public policy to connect my chemistry background with policymaking. There really is a serious disconnect between scientists and policymakers. I'd like to be a translator between the two groups and have the ability to use my undergraduate chemistry education with this master's in public policy and law degree to help create efficient policy that makes sense and is also scientifically sound.


MTV News: Ahead of the 2020 Presidential Election, what message would you like to send other students across the country?


Patel: Something I habitually mention is: ‘Democracy only functions once each person participates.’ So we plan to only have a really good, functioning, solid, sound democracy any time students are participating, whenever minorities are participating, as soon as everyone is participating in it. As soon as each person who has the freedom to vote is voting, and as soon as each person who lives in this nation is an...Active member of their community. ... You're volunteering in your community, you're being a good neighbor, you're participating in community events, and finding ways to prepare your community — whichever that shows for you — a higher end place.


This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.