Earlier this month our Secretary Mary Margaret and I attended the Young Democrats of North Carolina conference in Durham. We attended a session taught by OrganizerMemes, a popular social media presence who is known for his hilarious political memes. Organizer memes is a fascinating guy – he wears a panda head so he remains anonymous.
He taught us all about digital organizing and the power of using humor and memes to engage folks in politics. We took what we learned in that session and at the conference at large back to our campus so that we can better mobilize our community!
The name of the game for us this election year has been voter education. Our goal is to make voter information so accessible to students that they don’t even have to ask for it. We want it to come up to them in between classes, approach them in dining halls and libraries, and appear on their social media feeds. All of our complex voter laws in North Carolina can be overwhelming for students, so we want to make it as accessible as possible. And that means meeting students where they are!
We created these giant meme signs with the hope of catching students’ attention on their way to classes – enough for them not to run away from us when we offer them informational literature. For the past two weeks we have been tabling in the Pit, a central location on our campus, and using our meme signs to catch students attention so we can give them election information. Through this tabling, our lit drops, and our come to campus campaign on Wednesday, we have been able to reach thousands of UNC students.
The Come to Campus Campaign was a huge success! We were thrilled to be joined by so many incredible elected officials and candidates, including:
- North Carolina Democratic Party Chair Anderson Clayton
- Chapel Hill Mayor Jess Anderson
- Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs
- State Representative and Candidate for NC Treasurer Wesley Harris
- Chapel Hill Town Council member Theodore Nollert
- Candidate for NC Court of Appeals Martin Moore
- Chapel Hill Town Council member Paris Miller-Foushee
- Chapel Hill Town Council member Melissa McCullough
- Candidate for Orange County Commissioner Marilyn Carter
- Hillsborough Commissioner Matt Hughes
- North Carolina Democratic Party First Vice Chair Jonah Garson
- Orange County Commissioner Anna Richards
- Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools Board Member Barbara Fedders
We were able to distribute thousands of primary election information fliers to students on campus. We are so grateful for the support of our Orange County neighbors, state party, and democratic elected officials across North Carolina. They really value us as student voters and recognize our power, and we couldn’t be more grateful!