By Estefania Magdalena | Staff Writer 

In collaboration with Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society and the Service and Sustainability Learning Program, the Board of Student Activities of KCC (BOSA) have started a voting campaign in order to raise awareness in the student community about the importance of voting.

“The objective of the campaign is not to share my political stand,” said Kelly Hwang, the vice chair of BOSA, “but to say that whatever opinion or idea one has, it is important that your voice is heard.”

The purpose of the campaign is to remind everyone of the reasons why it is important to vote, regardless of the political position that each person has. Having the ability to vote and elect the representatives of a nation is a right that democracy grants to its citizens, and it is essential to reflect on what kind of future we want when choosing the people who will be in charge of carrying out that plan.

Hwang, who is a first-time voter this year, said that she feels that many people are not aware of how important it is to vote, and that many citizens do not know what the voting process is like, nor how to vote.  She wants people to be more involved politically when they have to vote.

What drove her to have this idea was that she thought it would be good to create a campaign that does not tell people who to vote for, but rather to raise awareness when voting, and also teach people how to register to vote since this year the modality won’t be physical. 

“The reason why I decided to start this campaign was because I was finding it very hard to find information to vote during the primary elections that were like a couple months ago and I had to look by myself,” Hwang said. “So then I thought If I am having trouble, then other people might be having trouble too.” 

Due to the pandemic and the coronavirus, KCC will not be able to hold meetings to explain how to vote or register to vote. For this reason, the campaign will be carried out completely online. The campaign started on Sept. 15 and the main focus is the creation of audiovisual content for Instagram, in which students with different political ideologies record themselves explaining the reasons why it is important for them to vote.

“The social media campaign will unofficially end on the deadline for voting registration Oct. 5,” she said. “We will still have some webinars and post online to remind people about how to vote and when to vote by.” 

Hwang said that another problem that the coronavirus brought was that many people have no idea how to vote by mail, and there is little information available to explain the process. People are used to going to vote in person, so voting through the mail will be a national challenge.

If you don’t know how to vote, it is possible to register to vote or check that if you are registered to vote here. For more information, contact the Board of Student Activities at kccbosa@hawaii.edu or on Instagram @kccbosa.