Oct. 18, Melanie Jackson, SMU Daily Campus staff writer and DIS Study Abroad Copenhagen student who is also a Hunt Scholar, for a piece encouraging SMU classmates to vote no matter the obstacles. Published in the Daily Campus under the heading If I can vote, you can too: https://tinyurl.com/2j9xdd47
I just voted in my first presidential election, 5,000 miles across the world from SMU with the help of the United States Embassy. If I can vote in this election, you can too.
Growing up, I dreamed of the moment I’d be able to vote in my first presidential election. I was excited as this truly marked a right of passage into adulthood. I never imagined this moment would have come in Denmark.
This semester I am studying abroad in Copenhagen, Denmark with DIS. DIS is a largely American program. Out of 1,600 students studying here for the 2024 fall semester, about 90-95% are American.
By Melanie Jackson
I just voted in my first presidential election, 5,000 miles across the world from SMU with the help of the United States Embassy. If I can vote in this election, you can too.
Growing up, I dreamed of the moment I’d be able to vote in my first presidential election. I was excited as this truly marked a right of passage into adulthood. I never imagined this moment would have come in Denmark.
This semester I am studying abroad in Copenhagen, Denmark with DIS. DIS is a largely American program. Out of 1,600 students studying here for the 2024 fall semester, about 90-95% are American.
DIS has held voting events in The Student Hub to educate students on how they can sign up for an absentee ballot.
During a voting pop-up with a representative from Copenhagen’s U.S. Embassy, students scattered all over The Student Hub printing ballots, stuffing envelopes, and anxiously waiting in line for their opportunity to cast their vote.
Sydney Wilmot, a junior studying Psychology at Bates College, received her Wyoming election ballot via email and turned it in at the event.
Wilmot says voting abroad is a unique experience and is concerned about the security of sending her ballot back to the U.S.
“It feels weird, it feels wrong,” Wilmot said. “I’m nervous that it won’t get there, and that my vote won’t exist or something, but it feels good to be able to still participate even though I’m overseas.”
Izzy Schamberger, DIS Copenhagen’s Student Activities Coordinator, helped plan the event with the embassy and posted voter registration reminders in the DIS Navigate app to keep students informed.
“Because of the age range of students at DIS, a lot of them are first-time voters as well as voting overseas, both of those can be confusing,” Schamberger said. “We want to provide the support so that they can make their voice heard, even though they are new to the process.”
Voting for the first time in a foreign country can be challenging. Schamberger has noticed that the differing regulations of each state’s absentee voting process have been an issue for some students.
“It can be complicated for students when they’re talking to each other or trying to find information online because it does change and they all have to address their envelopes,” Schamberger said. “Some are very specific where you can’t tape the label on the envelope, some people have to print directly on the envelopes.
My experience getting an absentee ballot internationally was almost the same as when I requested my Maryland ballot on campus in Dallas. All I had to do was go to Maryland’s Board of Elections website, fill out the mail-in ballot request with my new Danish address, and send them a signed document authorizing the address change. It arrived right on time to allow for the mailing process which will take a couple of weeks.
Ryan Steremberg, a senior at Muhlenberg College, returned for a second semester at DIS after studying in Copenhagen for the fall of 2023.
Steremberg has enjoyed being abroad to hear international perspectives during the 2023 and 2024 election seasons.
“You have the opportunity, if you wish, to talk to professors and students and people in public who are not from the U.S., and get their perspective on different issues,” Steremberg said. “I feel like that also helps inform your decision on who you vote for in the American political process as a whole.”
To stay informed on election news, Steremberg has gotten most of his updates from his host family in Copenhagen, and his family back home in Connecticut.
“I’m doing my own looking at the news here and there, but probably not as much as I should,” Steremberg said.
I was surrounded by election news all summer, interning for Scripps News in Washington D.C. The election played out in front of my eyes. I was at the White House the night President Joe Biden announced he was dropping out of the race. I saw former President Donald Trump sharing his controversial remarks on Vice President Kamala Harris’ race at the NABJ Conference in Chicago, Illinois.
To be out of this environment and in Denmark, free from the daily dose of overwhelming election news, is quite refreshing.
I still keep up with election news and have watched both the Presidential and Vice Presidential debates a few days after they aired due to the time difference, but my perspective has changed.
Denmark has made me view the election in a more global context. We can get so caught up in the polarization of the election that we forget it not only affects us as Americans, but the whole world.
This election could affect our membership in NATO after Trump’s repeated claims to pull America’s membership. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is a military alliance between 32 countries with the popular motto originating from Article Five, if one ally is attacked then it is an attack against all. The first and only time Article Five was invoked was during the 9/11 attacks. America’s absence would leave the country vulnerable during a potential future attack.
Foreign policy on both sides will look different. On the Israel-Hamas war, Harris supports ongoing calls for a ceasefire but does not support efforts to stop shipping weapons to Israel. While Trump does not oppose an Israeli win or occupation of Gaza.
The world’s eyes are on us, and we must use our right to vote—no matter what side of the political aisle you’re on.
The 2024 Presidential Election is less than three weeks away, and voting deadlines are fast approaching. This will be a narrow election. FiveThirtyEight polls currently forecast a Harris win by about a few dozen electoral college votes. But this may change. The election will come down to the swing states, especially Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Georgia.
Wilmot had some advice for students who aren’t planning to vote.
“I think it’s our constitutional right that a lot of people don’t have, and I think you should take advantage of that,” Wilmot said. “Do your research, figure out who you connect with more, and you should just vote because you can.”
As I cast my vote for my first presidential election, I thought of my ancestors who got the right to vote only 59 years ago with the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Voter suppression, especially in Black communities, is still an issue. But here, I am voting in an election while living across the world. We have come a long way.
Voting may be a right, but it is also a privilege.
Mustangs, please use your voice and privilege to vote in this election.
For voting resources, please visit vote.org.
Melanie Jackson is an SMU Junior and a Daily Campus staff Writer.