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My name is Nick Doran and I am the Vote Everywhere Ambassador at Binghamton University. Since I was a little kid, I have always been interested in politics. I have followed elections for as long as I can remember and I was always excited to go into the voting booth with my parents to vote. The first thing that I did when I turned eighteen was register to vote and I was extremely excited because my first election would be the 2012 Presidential Election.

Before becoming a Vote Everywhere Ambassador, I had never heard of the Andrew Goodman Foundation, although I knew the story of the Freedom Summer. I thought the organization was inspiring because they were trying to achieve change and make a difference by having young people be the mouthpiece for civic and voter engagement on campus. There is apathy among a lot of younger people about political and social change, but when they see their peers engaged in activities like this they are more likely to act on their own beliefs. I wanted to be apart of this movement and get students excited and passionate about voting.

The apathy that students have towards voting is depressing to me because young people have such potential to make a difference through the voting process. One of the most exciting things that happened this year at Binghamton was that the campus was able to swing one of the local elections. Without the campus vote, the county legislator for the campus would have lost. Young people were able to make a difference and change the outcome of something because they thought that it was important.

I do not think that a person has to be political to care about voting. Everyone cares about a specific issue. That passion is really what drives people to the polls and I think that if we spark that passion in young people they will turn out more. If young people realize that almost every issue will be affected in some way by voting, there will be less apathy towards the system.

I am so proud to be a part of the Andrew Goodman Foundation. It has done so much good and made a huge difference, especially through the Vote Everywhere Program. It made me realize that I am so much more passionate about voting than I thought I was and I want to continue to make a difference.

Click here to check out Nick Doran’s 2014 Getting Out The Vote video detailing his work at Binghamton University.

About the Author

Nick is a sophomore at Binghamton University, who majors in Economic Analysis. This semester, Nick has been the Academic Vice President for the Broome Hall Government in Newing College.  In addition, he hold the position of secretary on the Peace Action Binghamton University E-Board. For both positions, Nick works on advertising events and the meetings, utilizing B-Line, fliers and word-of-mouth.