CAA Highlights CAA SAAC Voting Initiatives
RICHMOND, Va. (Oct. 1, 2020) – The Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) and its 10 member institutions are engaged in an initiative, CAA Votes, designed to register student-athletes to vote and learn about issues in the 2020 election. Each school’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) has set up programs to aid their student-athletes in learning more about registering and the voting process.
The CAA has built a special page on its website, CAASports.com/CAAVotes, that includes a variety of helpful information. Links to registration deadlines, absentee ballot information, voting tips, voting resources and voting myths are featured. The conference also produced a public service announcement for its social media outlets that encourages people to register and vote.
Charleston’s program, Cougar Votes, has set up an executive board that will have drop-in times to help people get registered. They will be offering Cougar Cup points for first-time registration, as well as proof of previous registration.
Delaware set up a competition between teams to encourage student-athletes to register to vote. Teams were given a unique URL for TurboVote with which student-athletes could register and count toward their team’s total. The team with the most athletes registered is recognized as the most engaged group and becomes eligible for prizes.
Drexel created a sheet of Frequently Asked Questions for student-athletes and has also provided a variety of resources for them to use. Drexel also partnered with the platform GamePlan, which has online training and resources that can be assigned to student-athletes.
Elon’s initiative, “My Voting Plan”, is a social media initiative where student-athletes from both in-state and out-of-state are recording videos of what their voting plan is. This includes where they are from, when they registered, what day they plan to vote, and how. The end of the video includes them challenging their teammates and another team to create their voting plan. Elon will also be pushing out graphics pushing people to the ElonVotes website where information will be housed.
Hofstra has partnered with Hofstra Votes on campus. They are using social media to encourage student-athletes to vote. All teams who register can also earn their team Pride Cup Points.
JMU hosted a workshop on National Voter Registration Day on Sept. 22. The workshop was run by JMU’s Office of Civic Engagement and the goal was to have everyone who attended register to vote. They will host another workshop on Oct. 28 to focus on the election and provide answers to questions about the ballot.
UNCW is holding voter registration drives on Sept. 30 and Oct. 2. UNCW's SAAC group will conduct virtual sessions to help voters register via Zoom from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. each day. Several student-athletes and athletic department staff members will be assisting with the event.
#More Votes, More Voices is an initiative put on by the Northeastern University Black Athlete Caucus. The initiative is in collaboration with the Northeastern SAAC group to reach student-athletes and drive competition among teams for highest participation. Northeastern also has a campus-wide Voter Engagement Coalition involving staff and students to provide information and advocacy on registration, mail in ballots and in person voting.
Towson’s initiative, TU Athletes Vote, involves student-athletes going out in the community to ensure the public has the resources they need to register to vote and understand the ballot. The student-athletes held a “Honk If You Want To Vote” campaign in conjunction with campus-wide TU Votes Coalition’s National Voter Registration Day efforts.
William & Mary’s goal is to have 100 percent of its student-athletes registered to vote by Oct. 1. They have held Zoom sessions with each team and walked each player through the process. There has been a lot of support from all of the coaches, which has led to most of their players being already registered.