Re-Learning How to Vote: How volunteers are helping students engage in American politics from afar

The United States has become a battleground of political tensions, yet many American students in St Andrews feel detached from civic engagement despite a large American presence. Back in the United States, the Trump administration is desperate to keep states red: creating plans to restrict voting by mail before November's midterm elections, and by prompting nine states to  redraw their congressional district maps in an effort to secure a partisan advantage. In St Andrews, however, many American students don’t even know how to participate in the election because they have to complete an extra registration step when voting from abroad. 

Hayley George, a fourth-year voter from Connecticut, explained that “there's definitely a discrepancy between thinking, having ideas, and posting things [...] [and] voting.” She feels that one reason students don’t register to vote is that political actors haven’t figured out how to engage her generation in politics. 

Historically, university campuses have been places of resistance and activism. In the late 1960s, students protested for 144 days at San Francisco State College (now San Francisco State University) to demand an Ethnic Studies curriculum. More recently, Columbia University students protesting Israel’s war in Gaza have faced arrests, disciplinary action, and police intervention. Across the world, campuses remain spaces for challenging political authority, but many students feel there is no such culture in St Andrews.

When George walked past the library in early October, she came across Vote from Abroad, a group of Americans living abroad who train voting assistance officers. At the stand was Laura Mosedale, who moved to London in 1998 and raised her three children there. 

George shared how she had been procrastinating the voting process until Vote from Abroad members stepped in to help: “I kept thinking about how I needed to do it. And then, miraculously, outside the library, there was a group of older women who had a booth helping all American students register and send in mail-in ballots. They gave me all the correct forms, gave me the exact email I needed to send, and told me everything I needed to do. It was incredibly helpful.”

This was Mosedale’s fourth trip to St Andrews. Since 2016, Vote from Abroad has focused much of its effort on student populations. “We know there are tens of thousands of Americans who come to study in the UK every year, and only a tiny minority know how to vote from abroad,” Mosedale said. “That’s why we come to St Andrews, along with many other UK universities and study abroad programmes.”

Student organisations are also doing their best to make politics a priority for students. Following the Vote from Abroad visit, Women in Politics (WIP) kept the ball rolling by setting up a stand outside the library to encourage American students to send in their ballots. 

WIP was started in 2024 by current fourth-year students Claire Waskow, Petra Pender, and Abbey Jordan after noticing a lack of spaces where women could talk about politics in a supportive environment. After the 2024 presidential election, “I was feeling pretty helpless and hopeless about being able to politically participate,” Waskow explained. “I think a lot of people were feeling that similar feeling of ‘what do I do now?’”

Waskow, now a WIP Senior Advisor, has taken a step back from her leadership roles to let current presidents Lucy Stevenson and Stella Pfeifer lead the charge. “It is just a personal passion project for me [...] wanting everyone to make sure they’re staying engaged while they're here.”

Stevenson, from Perth, feels that one of “the wonderful parts of St Andrews is that you get to learn so much about global perspectives.” As a Scot hoping to better understand American elections, Stevenson feels that helping run the voting drive has provided her with the opportunity to learn more about the midterms and which races are particularly important. Regardless of where they are from, WIP members are committed to getting more students politically engaged. “Everyone on our committee is so diverse, but everybody wants to stand at that table and tell all the Americans that they need to vote,” Stevenson said.

Mosedale explained that her organisation always tries to partner with students and get them involved in its work. “This year, it's Women in Politics.” 

Waskow shared that WIP “really wanted to have a massive push of civic engagement locally.” She added that “the goal of our society is to encourage civic engagement and political participation for everyone […]. In the future, I'd love to continue doing more voting series for a range of places that are represented here by the student body.” She hopes that every student eligible to vote has the opportunity to make their voice heard and help shape the political future.

Mosedale expressed her gratitude for WIP’s contribution. “We need more [...] young people who are really willing to at least explain the [registration and voting] process.” She believes that university students have a responsibility both to exercise their own right to vote and to encourage those around them to do the same. “There's definitely a social contagion element. If everybody is voting around you, you're more likely to vote.” 

George has been registered to vote ever since she was eighteen and gained the right to do so. But St Andrews “is a town [in which] you can get quite out of touch with politics,” she said. “Especially when you're an American student, it seems so far away. It's hard when it's not right in front of you.” Walking out of the library last week to find a voter registration stand, she was glad that the opportunity to engage was finally accessible.

University campuses have long been spaces for political activism, and organisations like Vote from Abroad and Women in Politics hope that St Andrews will be no exception. While the distance from home and the isolation of the St Andrews bubble can make politics feel far removed from everyday life, these organisations want to remind students that they have both the opportunity and the responsibility to remain politically engaged. 

Illustration by Sandra Palazuelos Garcia