ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Getting students to vote is a challenge every college and university contends with. To ensure access to the polls, it’s state law for colleges with students living on campus to have polling places less than a mile away. But a report from the New York Public Interest Research Group calls out the state for 20 colleges, including Nazareth and St. John Fisher universities in Pittsford, that NYPIRG says do not.

News10NBC’s Antonina Tortorello found how area colleges and universities — those on and off — are getting students to the polls.

This may be the first election some college students can vote in, but their closest polling station may be too far away. Some may not even know how to register. But several colleges in the area all told us they are making sure their students can vote.

A Nazareth University spokesperson told us they will provide transportation to polling places. Finger Lakes Community College near Canandaigua and Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva are as well.

Nazareth and HWS supply mail-in forms and absentee ballots through “NazVotes” and “HWS Votes.” Rochester Institute of Technology’s Center for Leadership and Civic Engagement’s “ROAR the Vote” does something similar.

Center Director Kathryn Cilano says these programs help students navigate the process.

“When talking to students, many of them say, ‘you know, this is my chance to make sure that those in elected office represent and reflect my values as a young person,’ and regardless of the range of the political spectrum that they might represent, many students are feeling incredibly motivated this year, specifically to make sure that their registration status is correct that they have all of their T’s crossed and I’s dotted,” RIT’s Cilano said.

RIT, Nazareth and HWS have whole teams of student volunteers trained in nonpartisanship and how to encourage their peers to vote. ROAR the Vote had over 500 students register this year. RIT, SUNY Geneseo and SUNY Brockport have polling sites right on campus. Twenty-three SUNY schools — including FLCC, SUNY Brockport, and SUNY Geneseo — received a $3,000 grant from the IBIS Group to support student voter registration and civic engagement.

Cilano says there is a lot of young energy surrounding this year’s election.

“What I wasn’t anticipating was the number of students that were so eager to do the voter registration work. We had an abundance of clubs, organizations, individual students that wanted to come forth and say, ‘Hey, I’m registered to vote. I want to make sure that my peers are also registered to vote as well,'” Cilano said.

Some schools also told News10NBC a lot of their students will be voting by absentee ballot or at home. The deadline to apply for absentee ballots or to register to vote is Oct. 26.

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