This election season the Virginia Tech School of Visual Arts (SOVA) is joining a larger campaign headed by the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) to create non-partisan Get Out The Vote flyers. The flyers are meant to creatively catch the viewer’s attention while also encouraging a larger participatory democracy.
Why it matters: Beginning in 1998, AIGA’s oldest initiative is to apply design tools and thinking to drive civic engagement.
-The initiative is meant to make interactions between the U.S. government and its citizens more understandable, efficient and trustworthy while also encouraging designers to become more vocal citizens.
Driving the news: The 2024 presidential election is a narrow race and is being called by many outlets “the most important election of our generation”
-Virginia is historically a battleground state and with much emphasis being placed on campaigning within the commonwealth, the messaging from both the Donald Trump and Kamala Harris campaigns must reach eligible voters.
What they’re saying: Meaghan Dee, chair of graphic design at SOVA, believes that “Voting is your chance to make your voice heard,” and that registering is the first step.
-The graphic design chair also believes that a larger number of actual voters will lead to a more reflective democracy.
-As an artist and designer, she uses her ‘voice’ through the images she creates. She hopes students feel inspired to use their skills to express their opinions and inspire others to take positive action.
-She highlighted deadlines that she believes to be important such as the first Tuesday of November 2024 for in-person general election voting.
-Further, she believes it important to research the candidates and the issues they support in order to make an informed decision on election day.
Yes but, Dee was unsure of the number of Virginia Tech students participating in this year’s initiative despite encouraging them to do so.
-While word of mouth and tangible graphic initiatives are difficult to translate into an explanation of actual election outcomes, the lack of participation in this year’s drive may decrease the number of students registering to vote.
-The lack of participation may also explain why there is a continued effort across multiple organizations to increase student voter registration ahead of the 2024 presidential election.
Flashback: VT Engage: The Center for Leadership and Service Learning publishes statistics of students registered to vote in presidential elections.
-in 2020 this number was expressed as 90.7% of eligible students were registered to vote and of those students 72.8% actually voted.
-Virginia Tech is nationally recognized as a Voter Friendly Campus for 2023-2024 through a partnership between the Fair Election Center’s Campus Vote Project and the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators’ NASPA Lead Initiative.
-The AIGA initiative has been popular at Virginia Tech in recent elections with nine students submitting posters to the project in 2020.
What we’re watching:
-The 2020 election was largely seen as a referendum on Donald Trump’s administrative policies and the 2024 presidential election was set to be a rematch and referendum on the Biden administration.
-In 2024 the electoral playing field has shifted to the potential for newer and younger leadership in Kamala Harris with much of the campaigning taking place through online communication tools.
-As Trump lost the 2020 election despite attempts to overturn the results the public may be more confident in a win for Harris and as a result are less enthusiastic about campaigning on her behalf.
-With initiatives being spearheaded by Virginia Tech schools, professors and independent political action committees it is yet to be seen whether the number of students registered to vote will increase or decrease.
-The factors at play include enthusiasm for party platforms, civic duty and apathetic beliefs for the difference of one vote.
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