Vikings Make Their Voices Heard in 2026 Midterm Elections

SALEM, MASS. – Salem State University students made their voices heard in the 2026 midterm election on Tuesday, Nov. 3, with voter turnout reaching 43% in the Salem voting precinct that includes the university’s residential buildings—a strong turnout capping off eight weeks of voter education, registration and outreach efforts on campus.

Throughout the fall semester, Vikings Vote—a campus-wide initiative led by Salem State’s Frederick E. Berry Institute of Politics—engaged with students more than 6,500 times and helped register 430 students to vote in the Nov. 3 election. A team of vote ambassadors worked to help their peers understand the voting process, learn about the candidates and ballot questions, and make plans to cast their ballots across efforts that visited classrooms, residence halls, and more.

Students went to the polls Tuesday with nine statewide ballot questions before them, including proposals addressing same-day voter registration, housing and land use, public records, and environmental funding. Among the approved measures was Question 4, which proposed allowing same-day voter registration, an issue particularly relevant to college students. Salem voters supported the question with more than 68% voting in favor.

Vikings Vote helped students explore those issues before election day through educational events and conversations. Salem State partnered with Worcester State University and UMass Amherst on the Commonwealth Ballot Forum Initiative, hosting a discussion featuring opposing perspectives on one of the nine ballot questions and sharing conversations on two other questions held by Worcester State and UMass Amherst. The IOP also hosted programming focusing on the open Congressional seat serving Salem, while the student-led “Fuel Up for the Election: Ballot Breakdown” event helped 50 students better understand their ballots and prepare to vote. 

The initiative culminated with a “Party at the Polls” on election day at the Enterprise Center, Salem State’s on-campus polling location for both Ward 7 voting precincts (Salem State and its residential buildings are in precinct 1). More than 1,000 students, employees, community leaders and neighbors attended the all-day event, as part of an estimated 300 students and more than 2,000 Ward 7 neighbors who voted at the Enterprise Center. Many other Salem State students participated in the election through early voting or mail-in ballots.

“The Berry IOP is immensely proud of the dedication of our passionate student employees who worked tirelessly to help their peers prepare for the 2026 midterm election,” said Hannah Levine, assistant director of the IOP. “We know that this is not the end, but the start of a new era, where voting and actively engaging in the voting process is exciting rather than intimidating and something that everyone can be a part of. Voting is a privilege that not everyone has, and not all Salem State students have, but every voice matters and has a role to play in elections.”

In Ward 7, city-wide, and state-wide, voters rejected questions 3, 5, and 8, questions around a single voting primary, revenue and spending limits, and repealing recreational cannabis. Statewide, voters also narrowly rejected question 7, a question allowing construction of homes on small lots of land. The remaining five questions—issues surrounding public records, labor agreements for the Committee for Public Counsel Services, same-day voter registration, the Nature For All Fund, and upholding firearm laws—all passed.

For more on the Vikings Vote initiative, please visit salemstate.edu/vikingsvote.