Millions of people across the country — many of them students on Ohio University’s campus — will vote Tuesday. And for the first time in 10 years, Athens’ international community members will also have a chance to voice their pick for America’s next leader.
The Walter International Education Center will hold a mock presidential election Tuesday for international students, faculty and community members.
International residents can stop by the center between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. to vote and must bring their passports to show they are not United States citizens.
Participants will be given a mock ballot similar to what Americans view when voting, including both the Democratic and Republican parties as well as other third-party candidates, said Jennifer Petrie, organizer and a second-year doctoral student studying education and administration.
“The Walter International Education Center came up with the idea, and we proposed it to international students, and they were really in support of it,” said Petrie.
Petrie said the mock election gives some students who come from countries without a democracy a chance to do something they’ve never done before and also to learn how the democratic process works.
“I would like to experience firsthand how (voting) works here,” said Dyah Arin Hening, a third-year doctoral student studying mechanical and systems engineering. Hening is from Indonesia and has spent the past five years living and studying in Athens. She was previously able to vote in Indonesia.
Catherine Marshall, director of the Office of Education Abroad, has been Petrie’s supervisor through the mock election planning process and said she thinks that it’s important OU provide this opportunity to students.
Marshall thinks that because international students have experienced the political ads on television and the president’s visit to campus, they should be able to express their
opinions.
“It’s important that people have a voice,” she said.
md781510@ohiou.edu
