The University of Maryland SGA unanimously approved an act Wednesday to extend its contract with online voting resource TurboVote for two more years.
TurboVote, a product of nonprofit Democracy Works, is used by many universities across the country. The online platform provides students with “a one-stop shop for everything related to voting,” according to Hana Lee, the Student Government Association’s civic engagement director.
TurboVote helps students update voter registration and access national, state and local election resources. Students can also sign up for text and email reminders to stay updated on elections, said Lee, a sophomore social data science major.
According to a fall 2024 TerpsVote report, more than 1,800 students at this university used TurboVote to update their voter registration, find their polling place, request a mail-in ballot or for other voting-related reasons.
Under the act, the Student Government Association will allocate $4,000 in legislative reserves to cover the costs of the contract, which begins July 1.
[UMD SGA resolution aims to support student research efforts amid federal uncertainty]
The SGA currently holds a four-year contract with TurboVote which began in 2021 and was set to expire this year. The new contract extends the partnership until June 2027.
“I do believe that it’s a pretty useful contract, and that’s why we’re looking forward to renewing it,” Diego Henriquez, an SGA agricultural representative and the bill’s sponsor, told The Diamondback Wednesday.
In addition to providing election resources for students, TurboVote collects demographic information from voters across campus, the sophomore environmental science and technology major said. The SGA then uses the data to help students register for future elections, Henriquez explained.
[Here’s a look at the 2 questions on the 2025 SGA ballot]
Naomi Cohen, coordinator for social action and engagement in this university’s leadership and community service learning office, said TurboVote makes it much easier to communicate with students about voting information and allows the university to reach many more people than it otherwise would.
“Even if it’s not a presidential election, there are still always elections happening, or people talking about elections,” she said. “So TurboVote you can always use as a resource.”
Cohen added that out-of-state students who need to change their registration for their local and state elections can use TurboVote to help them through it.
“Voting can be a daunting process,” Lee said. “[TurboVote] just makes things a lot simpler for us and very easy for the students.”
