Voter Engagement at UTEP
The Center for Community Engagement at UTEP is committed to providing our students with all of the necessary information to make sure their votes are counted and their voices are heard. Election Day 2020 is coming up!
Make sure you have the proper information to go out and vote this November!
COUNTDOWN TO ELECTION DAY
Click the tabs below to learn more!
Before heading to the polls, it is important to know where to vote. Below are some links to help you identify your local polling place and early voting locations. UTEP will be also providing access to early voting on campus.
Where Do I Vote
EP County, TX Elections
Early Voting
Fill out the information below to get reminders of federal, state, local, and special elections—including registration deadlines, early voting dates, and the date of Election Day.
It is more important than ever that Miners vote safe during this election during the pandemic. Here are some resources to make sure you are aware of your voting options during this election season. Make sure to stay safe by wearing a mask, maintaining social distancing guidelines, and voting early!
Before heading to the polls, it is important to make sure you have access to accurate information to make your vote count. Below are some voter education resources to help you get informed and get involved in your community.

Election Day
Voting by Mail
Incredibly Close Elections
Below are some activites you can engage with to encourage others to vote:
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Create new social media posts, videos, or flyers that promote upcoming elections. This will give students a sense of community and positivity to inform peers, friends, and family of major deadlines and upcoming elections. (must be non-partisan & educational)
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Attending, viewing, or hosting as a class virtual information session and/or debate between candidates running for a local or state office. This informs and promotes students into learning more about our candidates running for office.
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Creating bipartisan cartoons and/or a neutral statement covering a political issue that can be added to the UTEP newspaper, The Prospector. (Contact - Student Media and Publications - Advertising Department) 915.747.7434 ProspectorAds@utep.edu
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Creating a presentation alongside an informational flyer describing in detail the ways local, state, or federal government affects college resources. This will enable students to become aware of the importance of voting and how it affects them. Particularly, the roles of local offices and the current political issues being discussed.
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Students are encouraged to get involved with RockTheVote.org
By volunteering with the RTV team of volunteers, who are passionate about youth voting and democracy. https://www.rockthevote.org/get-involved/volunteer-with-rock-the-vote/
Becoming an RTV ambassador will help students to gain knowledge by practicing relational organizing skills and obtain invaluable experience while working with the community. https://www.rockthevote.org/about-rock-the-vote/careers/rock-the-vote-ambassadors/
Below is a link to UTEP's Voter Engagement Activity. Click below to learn more about voting.
We the People! We the Future!

Click on the links below to learn more about candidates, voting, and elections.
Voter Registration Information
Voter Registration Information (in Spanish)
League of Women Voters
How to become a poll worker or election official
Election Protection's Texas Information
Pledge to vote
2020 Presidential Candidate Guide
To Request more information or a Voter Registration Form
I will VOTE
Essentials of Voting During the Pandemic
Voting Online
Keynote Panelist Special Guests:
Congresswoman Veronica Escobar, a third-generation El Pasoan, proudly represents Texas’ 16th Congressional District. She made history as the first woman elected to this seat and the first of two Latinas from Texas to serve in Congress. Congresswoman Escobar serves on the prestigious House Judiciary Committee and House Armed Services Committee. She served as a member of the House Democratic Leadership Team. She holds leadership positions on the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC), the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC), and the Democratic Women’s Caucus.
Before her election, she served on the governing body for El Paso County, first as a County Commissioner and then as County Judge. There, she fought back against those who used the government for their own personal gain and worked with her colleagues to modernize and reform the organization. She also worked to make El Paso County a leader in expanding access to healthcare by working with the University Medical Center of El Paso to build primary care clinics and the El Paso Children’s Hospital, the only children’s hospital on the U.S.-Mexico Border.
Prior to her service with El Paso County, Congresswoman Escobar was an English teacher at the University of Texas at El Paso and El Paso Community College. Congresswoman Escobar and her husband Michael have two children: Cristian Diego and Eloisa Isabel, and they live in Central El Paso.
Beto O’Rourke
Beto O’Rourke is a fourth-generation Texan, born and raised in El Paso. After graduating from Columbia University with a degree in English Literature, Beto returned home and started a small technology business that would grow to bring dozens of high-wage, high-skill jobs to the border community.
He ran for the El Paso City Council in 2005 and upon being elected became one of the youngest members to ever sit on the council. Beto served two terms before running for U.S. Congress in 2012, taking on a 16-year incumbent and winning. He would represent one of the world’s largest binational communities in Washington, DC for six years, serving on the House Veterans Affairs Committee, the House Armed Services Committee, and the House Committee on Homeland Security. In Congress, he successfully enacted laws that improved access to health care for veterans, added urgent mental health resources for service members, and permanently protected thousands of acres of natural land. As a leading voice on immigration and a lifelong advocate for the U.S.-Mexico border, Beto organized a 2,000 person Father’s Day march to Tornillo to raise awareness of family separation. He would continue returning to the camp until all of the children were successfully released.
In March of 2017, Beto launched a historic 19-month campaign to represent all 28 million Texans in the U.S. Senate. Running the largest grassroots campaign the state had ever seen, he rejected all money from political action committees and personally visited each one of the 254 counties of Texas as he held over 350 town hall discussions. Beto ultimately received more votes than any Democrat in Texas history as he excited thousands of first-time voters to go to the polls. Beto is married to Amy, and they are raising their three children -- Ulysses, Molly, and Henry -- in El Paso.
Robert Moore
Robert Moore has been a journalist for 37 years, most of it in El Paso. He currently is president and CEO of El Paso Matters, a nonprofit news organization he founded in 2019. Moore has written about border issues for the Washington Post, ProPublica, Texas Monthly, and other media outlets.
This year, he was the recipient of the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for work that showed that the Border Patrol ignored the worsening condition of a 16-year-old boy who later died of the flu in his cell. He also was part of a Washington Post team that was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for coverage of mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton, Ohio. In 2013, he was presented the Benjamin C. Bradlee Editor of the Year Award from the National Press Foundation, the nation’s highest honor for a newspaper editor.
Moore graduated with high honors from the University of Texas at El Paso, earning a B.A. in political science in 1998.
Moore serves on the board of United Way of El Paso County, where he chairs the Education Community Impact Committee. He previously has served on the boards of El Paso’s Center Against Sexual and Family Violence and the Child Crisis Center. He is a past president of the Colorado Press Association and Texas Associated Press Managing Editors. He is married to Kate Gannon, an assistant professor of practice in UTEP’s Communications Department.
Featured UTEP Professors:
Dr. Richard Pineda, UTEP Communications Dept.
Dr. Richard D. Pineda is an associate professor in the Department of Communication and currently serves as director of the Sam Donaldson Center for Communication Studies. Dr. Pineda's research and teaching interests focus on politics, leadership, media, popular culture and Latinidad.
Dr. José Villalobos, UTEP Political Science Dept.
Dr. José D. Villalobos is an Associate Professor of Political Science and a UTEP Distinguished Teaching Professor. He currently serves as Chair of the Dean's Community Engagement & Leadership (CEL) Task Force and Review Committee. His research examines U.S. institutional leadership/management, public opinion dynamics, and policymaking in the areas of the U.S. presidency, race/ethnicity politics and identity, and immigration policy.
Dr. Yolanda Chávez Leyva, UTEP History Dept.
Dr. Yolanda Chávez Leyva is a Chicana historian and writer who was born and raised on the border. She is the Director of the Institute of Oral History, Director of the Liberal Arts Honors Program, and Associate Professor. She has spent her life listening to and now documenting the lives of people who live on la Frontera. Professor Leyva specializes in border history, public history, and Chicana history.
Ms. Azuri Gonzalez, UTEP Center for Community Engagement Director
As Director of the Center for Civic Engagement at UTEP, Azuri Gonzalez manages UTEP’s community-based teaching and learning partnerships to enhance higher education learning and contribute to the public good.
Dr. Gina Nuñez-Mchiri, UTEP Women’s & Gender Studies Dept.
Dr. Guillermina G. Núñez-Mchiri is Director of Women and Gender Studies and an Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Texas at El Paso. Dr. Núñez-Mchiri is an applied anthropologist who promotes service-learning and engaged scholarship efforts on the U.S.-Mexico Border. She is the academic partner to Wise Latina International, a non-profit organization that empowers Latinas through the arts and entertainment.
Ms. Naomi Fertman, UTEP Women’s & Gender Studies Dept.
Naomi Fertman has been with the Women’s and Gender Studies department for 5 years. Her area of interest is in maternal health with a focus on accessibility and health advocacy. She is the faculty advisor for IGNITE (UTEP).
Session 1: The Power of the Youth Vote
Session 2: Voter Education and Social Justice
Session 3: Women Can Vote Centennial Panel
Session 4: The Essentials of Voting During the Pandemic