The first ballot some University of Louisville students cast this fall wasn’t for a candidate, but rather a stuffed bear.
It was all part of a bigger push to make civic engagement a core aspect of campus culture, not just something that happens every other year in November.
Leading the charge is the Cards Vote program in the Office of Service Learning and Civic Engagement, who this year founded the UofL Civic Engagement Coalition made up of 19 members from various campus departments and community organizations. Because of the coalition, Cards Vote has been able to make connections across campus and beyond, including with the League of Women Voters and the Jefferson County Clerk’s Office, to host events and inform students.
In September, Cards Vote celebrated National Voter Registration Day with donuts in the Red Barn plaza and hosted an on-campus forum for Louisville’s mayoral candidates, giving students a closer look at the people asking for their votes. Throughout the semester, Cards Vote Ambassadors have registered dozens of first-time UofL student voters from across the United States and helped hundreds of others make sure their registrations are up to date.
Then came the bears. During National Voter Education Week, the Cards Vote Program collaborated with the Engage Lead Serve Board, the Student Activities Board, and the Jefferson County Clerk’s Office to bring real voting booths, a voting machine, and specially designed ballots to campus for an event called “Ballots and Bears.” Students walked through every step of voting, from check-in to casting a ballot, and the stuffed bear they voted for went home with them.
The goal is to make the voting process familiar now, so it doesn’t feel intimidating later.
“A lot of the younger people don’t get out there and vote,” said Autumn Westmoreland, Cards Vote ambassador and College of Business junior. “This event helps get students comfortable with voting and the process of it.”
For Westmoreland, the polls have always felt familiar. She grew up going with her family on Election Day and knew when she came to UofL she wanted to be civically involved. Her service now as a Cards Vote Ambassador is pivotal to growing civic engagement on campus.
These efforts by Cardinals are getting noticed well beyond campus. ALL IN, a nonpartisan student-voting organization, recently awarded UofL a 2026 seal for a highly established action plan for voter engagement and again named UofL one of its Most Engaged Campuses for intentional, non-partisan efforts to increase student voter registration, education and turnout.
Want in? Learn more about how to get involved with civic engagement at UofL.
Check out the photo album from “Ballots & Bears” on UofL’s Flickr.
