The 2018 Midterm elections are coming up quickly, and this year is an important one for deciding which party will take control of Congress. Many Americans tune out during conversations about midterm elections. After all, voter turnout during the 2014 midterm elections was less than 36 percent. And those numbers are even lower among members of marginalized communities and college students. Turn-out among Black voters fell sharply during the last presidential election, and  only 14 percent of college students voted in the last presidential election. These numbers are bound to drop even more during the upcoming midterms.

Voting for the first time can be a mysterious and daunting experience, especially as a college student. There are probably a lot of the same questions floating around college students’ heads, like “Should I register to vote in my home state or my college state?” “How do I cast an absentee ballot?” or “How will I know where to vote once I’m registered?”

The youth vote has the power to swing elections all across the country, and it’s important that college students understand exactly how to exercise their voting privileges, so for the next couple of months, Intersections will be running a recurring series that explains some of the confusing intricacies of voting while in college.