features
fall 2024
By Andrea Grant and Ben Hall
Every vote counts. It’s true, of course, but in an Electoral College-based presidential election system—where razor-thin margins in a handful of battleground states can decide the winner of the nation’s highest office—voting in reliably blue Massachusetts can feel a bit like adding your voice (or a quickly drowned-out jeer) to a chorus of “Sweet Caroline” at a Red Sox game. It’s nice to be involved, but is it necessary?
That’s why Suffolk Votes and the Sawyer Business School’s student-led marketing agency, Suffolk in the Hub, are teaming up to make a strong case for why voting matters. Their new “Turn It Over” campaign highlights the critical importance of including every voice, especially in more competitive state and local races, and in weighing the ballot questions that often spill over to the back of the ballot. The ultimate goal is to get young voters to register, many for the first time, and establish a lifelong habit of civic engagement.
The campaign’s name was inspired by Massachusetts’ ballot questions, which often appear on the back of the ballot. This fall voters will weigh in on issues like deciding the fate of the state’s MCAS student testing requirement, legalizing some hallucinogens, and unionizing rideshare drivers—and their decisions have the potential to impact many Massachusetts residents’ lives now and in the future. It’s important that young voters—who will live with the choices longest—have a say.
So Suffolk Votes partnered with Suffolk In The Hub to bring the message to their peers where many get their political information already: on social media. They’ve embarked on a social media blitz leading up to Election Day, complete with TikTok videos, Instagram guides to polling places, information about the ballot questions, and how to vote. Not only is it great marketing experience, it’s also good civics.
“It’s critical to get more students to vote and be informed,” says marketing major Ava Costa, Class of 2025. “With all the sources that students can find on social media, some of which can spread false information, it’s good for Suffolk students to have one place to trust and know that it’s nonbiased.”
Another element of the Suffolk Votes campaign is giving students greater agency, says fellow Suffolk In The Hub member Ava Leombruno, Class of 2027: “Helping students enter a conversation or be a part of a bigger debate seems important. How are we giving them the tools to do that?”
Return to Table of Contents