Views expressed in opinion columns are the author’s own.

In the 2014 election — the last midterm — only 19 percent of University of Maryland students voted. Of course, more students should vote, and to the credit of organizations such as the Terps Vote coalition, more students are getting registered to vote. But being registered isn’t enough — we need greater access to absentee ballots.

Higher voter registration doesn’t necessarily translate into higher turnout. More can be done to ensure that every student voice is heard, even if they can’t — or choose not to — physically submit their vote. We should campaign for absentee ballots alongside voter registration. By bringing more awareness to this option and making it a more widespread practice, we can encourage more students to vote — a necessary step in the right direction for this country.

For most Maryland students, requesting an absentee ballot can be done online through the Maryland Board of Elections website by providing some identification information. The ballot can be sent to your address or downloaded online and then must be returned by mail or by hand to your local board of elections. If the website is unable to confirm your identification, you can request an absentee ballot through the mail with a separate application and then obtain the ballot once it has been processed.

Turbo Vote, an online service used by the Student Government Association and Terps Vote, gives amazing step-by-step guidance through the process of registering to vote. If you indicate that you want to vote by mail, they’ll send you a stamped envelope with the forms necessary to request an absentee ballot. For out-of-state residents, Terps Vote has a great breakdown of each state’s requirements on its website.

There are a lot of great resources that make voting easier for students, but if the last midterms were any indication, they are being under-advertised and under-utilized. Let’s follow up the voting registration campaigns with a campus-wide push for absentee ballots. For a busy college student, it’s a simple and convenient set of forms. For the country, it’s our future.

Alyssa McKinney is a sophomore electrical engineering major. She can be reached at alyssa.cmck@gmail.com.