StudCo Lowers Students' Costs of Voting

Earlier this semester, Student Council launched numerous initiatives in efforts to increase student voter turnout. Some of these are UVAVotes.com (an online hub where students can locate important registration voter deadlines and locations), transportation to polling places on Election Day, and accesible locations to register on Grounds. StudCo is attempting to make it easier for students to both register beforehand and vote. These efforts and more collectively lower students’ costs of voting (C), the costs an individual expects to incur while participating in a vote. By lowering costs for students, StudCo is affecting the proposed voting equation:

            pB + D > C

Where p is the probability that your vote is decisive, B is the marginal benefit of casting a decisive vote, D is the utility derived from the act of voting itself, and C is the cost of voting.

By decreasing the right side of the equation, C, StudCo is increasing the chance that a student will vote in the election as it would take less for the benefits of voting to outweigh the costs. Indeed, voter registration rates are higher at UVA than in years past. Student groups including StudCo have registered over 3,000 students this year alone. Some part of StudCo’s initiative is taking hold. 

StudCo largely seems to ignore the pB in the above equation, the expected benefit of casting a decisive vote. While this is interesting, it makes sense. There is little that can be done to affect this probability. Virginia is somewhat a swing state, but there is nothing StudCo can do to change this. It is better for them to devote their resources to decrease C. Come Election Day, we will see whether or not StudCo’s initiatives decreased the costs of voting enough for marginal benefits to outweigh marginal costs to convince students to show up the polls.