MACON – The College Hill Alliance, Mercer University's Student Government Association (SGA) and TurboVote have partnered with Middle Georgia State College's Student Government Association, Wesleyan College's Campus Activity Board, Mercer University's QuadWorks and Mercer Law School's Student Bar Association to present a “Turn Out to Vote” concert headlined by Nashville-based singer/songwriter Ben Rector.
The free event, starting at 8 p.m. on Sept. 19, will take place in Mercer Village. The Central Georgia community and students are invited to attend.
The organizations are partnering together to promote civic engagement in Macon, particularly among the higher education institutions.
“The most exciting aspect of this event – outside of the increase in civic engagement – is the groundbreaking collaboration of Macon's higher education institutions in hopes of tackling a common problem: low voter turnout among college students,” said Mercer SGA Senator Austin Harrison. “We hope that this is the beginning of a beneficial partnership between these institutions.”
The partners are using TurboVote, a nonprofit service designed to modernize voting and increase citizen participation, to encourage civic engagement among students and the community. TurboVote is an application that makes voting easy. To sign up for the service, visit collegehill.turbovote.org.
“We are hoping to remove barriers to voting for our students and increase voter turnout,” said Mercer SGA President Joey Wozniak. “Many out-of-state students are unaware of Georgia's voting laws, such as the voter ID law. With this partnership, we're taking a fun, unique, multi-tiered approach to educate our students on these issues and ultimately create civically engaged students.”
A clear message is being sent out to the entire community of Macon: turn out to vote.
About TurboVote
TurboVote is a project of Democracy Works, a nonpartisan 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in Brooklyn, New York, that is passionate about building the democracy of the future.
About the College Hill Alliance
Established by a grant to Mercer University from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation in 2009, the College Hill Alliance assists the community in creating positive change to the physical, social and economic fabric of the College Hill Corridor, a two-square-mile area between Mercer's campus and Macon, Georgia's downtown business district. Visit collegehillmacon.com.
