To: The Wellesley College Community
From: President Paula A. Johnson
Re: Introducing WellesleyVotes—a nonpartisan initiative to support voting
Date: August 10, 2026
I hope this message finds you having an enjoyable summer. Though we are a few weeks away from the start of the fall semester, I wanted to reach out about an important issue that affects us all: the responsibility we have as citizens to vote.
As you may know, this year some states have made changes to voter registration and absentee voting policies, which has pushed those deadlines earlier than in previous years. For some, this will require advance planning to cast your ballot.
To help with this process as we have in the past, partners across campus are working together on WellesleyVotes—an institution-wide initiative to support voter education for the entire community.
As part of this effort, we will be providing information and other resources you may find helpful as you plan to vote in the fall. We are also setting up times and locations for out-of-state students to have access to notaries on campus, which may be required to register or vote by absentee ballot. You will be able to find those details on the website soon. The site will also feature information on relevant events, such as the outstanding programming being organized by Associate Professor of Political Science and Director of the Knapp Social Science Center Jennifer Chudy and others—including a timely discussion about the novel Yesteryear and how culture shapes politics on October 5, as well as a post-election discussion on November 10.
Student leaders are a key part of this effort and I want to thank Elizabeth Hollmann ’28 and Samantha Manoloff ’27, the co-chairs of the Committee for Political Engagement, for their contributions. I also want to thank the the WellesleyVotes working group, which includes team members from the Lulu Chow Wang ’66 Center for Career Education and its civic engagement staff; Communications and Public Affairs; Student Involvement and Residential Life; the Knapp Social Science Center; and the Wellesley College Alumnae Association. If there are other organizations or departments that would like to be part of this effort, please email wellesleyvotes@wellesley.edu.
Through these efforts we hope to support our community as we exercise our civic responsibility to vote and strengthen a democracy that needs us.
I hope you’ll join me in voting this fall.