On Nov. 3, 2026, the first federal election since the 2024 presidential election will capture national attention. While all Florida residents can expect to vote for governor, U.S. Senate, Attorney General, Chief Financial Officer, Agriculture Commissioner and three constitutional amendments, many counties across the state will include local electoral races on voters’ ballots, according to WTXL Tallahasee’s 2026 Florida Voter guide.
Voter engagement and turnout is a large part of any election, but especially those at the local level. A study conducted in 2024 by Tufts University found that, “76 percent of college students were registered to vote and 53 percent of all eligible students voted.”
Further examination into voter engagement proves that only 24 percent of those registered in Florida actually voted in local elections, according to the Florida Department of state.
As the date for the midterm election nears, conversations on voter engagement have been highlighted on both the University of South Florida Tampa and St. Petersburg campus.
“The importance of voting in local elections is a lot bigger than people realize because it directly impacts you, oftentimes more than, say, federal elections. Voting for your city council actually establishes what your city, the location you’re living in, will be doing,” said Max Merchant, a junior economics and political science double major with a minor in Chinese.
Merchant is the lead organizer of the GenCleo University of South Florida Tampa chapter, a group dedicated to mobilizing climate action through education and advocacy. The group is active on both campuses and has been working to get students registered and prepared to vote through educational events and by directing students to Cleo’s own voter hub.
The GenCleo St. Petersburg chapter will host their Power the Polls festival from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Oct. 27th. The festival, which offers food, blind dates with books, crafts, education on the electoral candidates as well as a trolley ride to the early voting polling site in Pinellas County, is just one example of additional resources highlighted at USF.
“It is important that voters have resources outside of just the news, because when candidates are promoting themselves, they’ll talk about what voters want to hear. But if you truly want to know what the candidates are about, the best thing you can do is research,” Merchant stated. “At GenCleo, we want to make that research easier and more accessible for all students. Students are very busy and they might not have time to do in depth research.”
While the outcome of federal elections affects the daily lives of the nation as a whole, voter turnout in local elections can be the difference between how topics like recycling, natural disaster relief and water bills are handled city-wide.
“Students who are living in the city and are voting in the city should be aware of city issues and city elections,” said Judithanne McLauchlan, director of the Center for Civic Engagement (CCE) at USF St. Pete.
In conjunction with GenCleo, the CCE will be organizing free rides to the polls on election day. While these rides to the polls are geared toward local residents, students registered to vote outside of Pinellas or Hillsborough counties are still lent the encouragement from McLauchlan to mail in their ballot early.
“In Florida there are three ways of voting. Students can vote by mail, students can vote early, and in Pinellas county that starts October 19th, or they can wait until election day and vote on that Tuesday… When you get the mail in ballot, you have time to actually review it,” she said.
Freshman finance major, Alysse Gutierrez, is one student who already mailed in her ballot back home.
“I try to tell my friends that the government has a lot to do with the day-to-day things that you do. I think a lot of people fail to understand that,” Gutierrez told the Crow’s Nest. “Yes, the big elections and the general elections are great, but the people that are actually going to be representing you in your local communities and in your states are very important. Those people have more of a voice for you than you do have for yourself,” she continued.
Municipal elections include county commission races, school board races, city commission races, mayoral races, school tax referendums, charter amendments and local ballot initiatives. McLauchlan stressed that while voters can be preoccupied with federal representatives, the local races featured on the ballot are still a point of concern.
“What happened with those water bills? Was the trash picked up after Milton in a timely manner in my neighborhood?’ Those kinds of things may not be top of mind, but they should know what’s happening in City Hall,” she said.
More so than any other election, local electoral races depend on the concern of a few to change the daily lives of an entire community.
When asked why she’s active in her own county’s local election, Gutierrez said, “Our generation is very important, and to actually have a change, [and] have our voice heard is why we vote. So if you get more attraction to the younger generation, we can actually do something and make a change.”
