Student Union senators are drafting petitions to circulate among instructors and students calling for the cancellation of classes and exams on the day of the 2020 presidential elections.

According to sophomore senator Philip Keisler, who came up with the idea, the proposal is another way for Washington University to encourage students to vote.

The student petition has a goal of 5,000 signatures, and is similar in language to the instructor petition. Keisler says the instructor petition aims to show that the voting holiday would have support from more than just students.

Keisler pointed to Columbia University and Liberty University as role models for civic engagement of their student bodies. Both universities cancel classes on Election Day; Liberty University even rents out buses to shuttle thousands of students to off-campus polling locations.

“The holidays go towards creating a culture of their students voting and of valuing their students’ voices and their ability to stay in our democracy,” Keisler said.

Sophomore senator Diva Harsoor, who helped draft the petition, said students should not have to choose between “being an engaged citizen and being an engaged student.”

41.8% of Washington University students voted in the 2018 midterms, a marked increase from the 15.9% of students that voted in the 2014 midterms. Coupled with the fact that Missouri is currently one of 13 states without any form of early voting, understaffed polling locations at the Sumers Recreation Center caused long lines, resulting in multi-hour waits for some students.

Keisler cited the lines as a widespread deterrent from voting in the 2018 midterms, coupled with having a physics exam on the evening of the vote.

“It was a very stressful experience trying to cram, getting out to vote and also knowing you have a physics test at 6,” Keisler said.

Last year, the student group WashU Votes passed out snacks to encourage those in line to stay, and then-Provost Holden Thorp sent out a University-wide email urging faculty to excuse absences or late arrivals caused by the waits.

Keisler acknowledged that convincing professors to drop a day of instruction is a hard. The petition calls for programming related to civic engagement on Election Day, based on a suggestion from a professor who told Harsoor it would show that the day about more than a free skip day. Keisler has received encouragement from several political science professors, whom he declined to name since the petition is not yet out.

The push for a day off poses additional challenges given that the 2020-2021 academic calendar has already been scheduled. Due to this difficulty, Keisler is looking ahead to the 2024 elections as a much easier target for a voting break.

Once the language of the instructor petition is finalized, Harsoor and Keisler will send it out to faculty, deans and department heads, in hopes that they will circulate the petitions throughout their departments and colleges. Keisler said he is hoping for 100 professors to sign on before he officially submits it the Office of the Registrar for consideration. The senators hope to submit the instructor and student petitions jointly at the end of November.

Sophomores Sam McGarey and Katie Steinmeyer are open to the idea. McGarey voted by absentee ballot in the 2018 midterms, but says he is switching his registration to St. Louis and would welcome the day off. Steinmeyer skipped an afternoon political science class, with permission from the instructor, to drive to her hometown of Fenton, Missouri to vote.

“[It was] a three-hour ordeal,” Steinmeyer said. “He was like, ‘Please go. Please skip my class.’”

Editor’s note: Diva Harsoor is a reporter for Student Life. Harsoor was not involved in the reporting or editing of this article.