CINCINNATI — Mount St. Joseph University senior Jaleah Fair-Harris has been trying to vote for years now. It all began back in 2018 when she tried to vote in the mid-term election and was told they couldn’t find her in the system.

“When they told me they couldn’t find me, I was really upset,” said Fair-Harris. “I was really upset for the simple fact that I woke up and I registered to vote.”

Despite the disappointment, she didn’t give up. She reached out to the Campus Vote Project, an initiative that helps students register to vote. They provided her with a card to verify she was registered to vote. But, now, two years later she’s having issues finding herself in the system.

“It was very difficult to find where I was in the system,” said Fair-Harris. “I have two last names, Fair-Harris, so it's hyphenated.”

She spoke to a woman at the Hamilton County Board of Elections and found out that her last name was the issue.

“She told me that they don’t use hyphenations, they don't put quotation marks around anything that's in your name,” she said. “Anything extra, they take it out. And I was like, oh that's really weird because nobody ever told me. No heads up to let me know that they’re taking it out of my name.”

And spelling discrepancies aren’t the only issues students are facing when registering to vote.

Students who live on campus are also facing issues registering with their dorm address.

“You actually have to go to the BMV, update their information online through the BMV, and then go back to the online voter registration portal to register to vote that way,” said Keith Lanser, Mount St. Joseph associate director of service-learning and civic engagement. “So again, a significant barrier for folks, especially in this time of COVID-19 when that's how students are registering to vote, it's online.”

Lanser and his team were the ones who organized the Campus Vote Project. Sixty-five percent of students at Mount St. Joseph voted in the 2016 presidential election, but Lanser said he wants to see even more students have their voices heard.

“In 2016, only 50 percent of college students voted, so what about the other 50 percent who didn't show up,” he said. “That's a big issue. Students and young folks at lower rates than other generations in the United States, and it's up to all of us to make sure that they show up to vote.”

And that’s exactly what Fair-Harris is prepared to do this November.

“This is really important to me and, like, just my community in general for us to be heard a lot of us feel like a lot of people in my age group feel like their voice really doesn't matter,” she said. “And I'm really trying to implement that change and let people know like it does matter.”

Anyone that would like to check their voter registration status may visit olvr.ohiosos.gov.