A peek at the polls: political participation through the years

By Moid Asif     11/5/24 11:38pm

Waiting on election results isn’t new to Rice students. The 1916 presidential election saw students waiting for the Houston Chronicle’s news for three days; when the results were finally announced, Woodrow Wilson’s reelection drew incoherent shouting, rah-rahs and a congregation in the quad.

The first president of Rice, Edgar Odell Lovett, was a friend and former colleague of Woodrow Wilson. When Wilson won reelection in 1916, members of the Rice community celebrated. The support for Wilson was overwhelming, so much so that a November 1916 article in the Thresher said that the Saturday after his reelection was declared a holiday. 

“Every man in Rice Institute is a Democrat — that is, if their beliefs are judged from the unanimity of … Woodrow Wilson Day, Saturday following the election,” the article read.

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Moving forward a few decades, Rice students and faculty continued to lean toward a particular candidate. In a Nov. 4, 1960 article in the Thresher, a ‘pre-election presidential primary’ poll revealed a majority of students supported Richard Nixon over John F. Kennedy for the presidency.

“Nixon received an even two-thirds of the ballots cast, winning 270-135,” the article reported.

In the late 1960s, with the Vietnam War at its peak and a looming presidential election, the Rice community had shared their opinions. In a May 1968 op-ed in the Thresher, the Citizens for McCarthy Houston Chairman J.-Cl. DeBremaecker said that he wanted to thank the Rice community for their work in furthering Senator Eugene McCarthy’s mission. McCarthy was opposed to the Vietnam War and worked on advocating against the war within the Democratic party.  

“I want to thank all the students and faculty members who worked for Senator McCarthy, and for bringing true liberalism to Texas,” DeBremaecker wrote.

The Rice community’s involvement did not just stop with supporting particular candidates but also included broader issues, such as the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. A May 1968 Thresher poll found that a majority of respondents were opposed to the Vietnam War. 

“About 71% of the respondents indicated they were opposed to the war, and over 62% said they had become more dovish in their opinion of the war in the past year,” the article reported. 

Students also banded together through student organizing and political clubs, like the Young Democrats. In a January 1970 edition of the Thresher, there was an advertisement for voter registration through a drive organized by the Young Democrats, showing the involvement of these political groups on campus. 

In recent times

A November 2018 article in the Thresher showed a steady increase in the number of votes cast by Rice students in the 2010s. In 2014, 336 votes were cast by Rice students, while in 2016 and 2018 it rose to 1,027 and then 1,298, respectively. 

Although the number of votes increased throughout the 2010s, some Rice students believed participating in electoral politics was not the most effective way to see the changes they wanted. In the same November 2018 edition, two students, Bilal Rehman ’20 and Sunee Quirante ’20, wrote in an op-ed that grassroots movements are a more effective form of activism. 

“Ultimately, direct engagement through grassroots community organizations … is the most straightforward way to pursue the political ideals that Rice students find important. Activism has never begun or ended with electoral politics — similarly, our own activism must not be limited to electoral involvement,” Rehman and Quirante wrote. 

This grassroots activism they spoke about was at play during COVID-era polling. In February 2020, there was no on-campus polling station for primary elections, so a student organization took civic engagement into its own hands. 

A February 2020 article in the Thresher wrote that Civic Duty Rice helped students in getting to polling locations off campus.

“Civic Duty Rice, a non-partisan civic engagement club … worked with the administration to organize shuttles to take students to nearby polling locations … for early voting and on election day,” the article said. 

In the past, some students went so far as to say voting  is the most important tool they have to express their opinions. As shown in a September 2020 article in the Thresher, a student, Lila Greiner, said she believed voting is crucial in America. 

“The voice of the people can be the most powerful tool in a democracy if used correctly,” Greiner said. 

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