As Nov. 6 nears, the Democratic Party of Evanston is projecting higher voter turnout and civic engagement locally than the levels seen for the 2014 midterm elections, said the organization’s communications director.

Typically, DPOE receives more volunteers closer to elections, Morgan said. This year, volunteers have been plugged into phone banks, making calls to a number of different congressional districts and canvassing in those areas.

Morgan noted that even statewide, there are more requests for vote-by-mail ballots this election cycle than there were in 2014. As of Thursday, there have been 310,532 requests for mail-in ballots in Illinois compared to the 268,218 requests in 2014, according to the Illinois State Board of Elections.

“People across the board are thinking about, ‘What is my political role?’ — whether that’s within the Democratic Party of Evanston or another advocacy organization,” he said. “They’re thinking about, ‘How does this have a positive impact on our community?’”

With a new office at Church Street and Dodge Avenue, near Evanston Township High School, Morgan said the DPOE hopes to engage a younger audience. Morgan said he believes that there will be a greater number of young voters next month, following major student-led movements like the March For Our Lives.

Weinberg sophomore Skye McCoy — who leans liberal — said her frustrations with President Donald Trump and his administration has pushed her to vote more Democratic in this upcoming election.

“(Trump) says things, and then you look them up later and they’re lies,” she said. “And eventually, you stop bothering to look them up because you assume everything he says is going to be a lie at this point.”

However, Medill freshman Rachel Baldauf, who identifies as conservative, said Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court confirmation hearings and how the public responded upset many Republicans who believe the confirmation was mishandled. This may incite more Republicans to vote as well, she said.

Morgan said that with folks fired up and interested in making a difference, the DPOE hopes to “bring home a lot of wins on Election Day.”

“We’ve got 26 and a half more days left,” Morgan said on Thursday. “We’ve been working really hard since the last election, and we hope all this hard work pays off.”

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