About

In 2021, Katie Holinstat was a high school freshman knocking on doors and phone banking to help with the re-election campaign of a U.S. Congresswoman in her NJ district. She realized that college-age voters are rarely home in November, and often skip out of elections because they don’t plan ahead to vote by mail from their dorm rooms. The wheels in Katie’s mind started turning and she reached out to a U.S. History teacher in her school to see about distributing mail ballot applications to seniors later that year. That was the seed that started the U. Vote journey. Katie formally established a non-profit organization and enlisted her sister, Ellie. Together they built a website and social media presence, recruited volunteers, lobbied schools to participate and sought advocates across the state via personal outreach. Today, U. Vote ambassadors in multiple NJ cities and counties ensure that schools educate graduating seniors, distribute mail ballot applications and inspire teens to participate in every election. They believe that if every senior learned to print mail ballot applications, understood how to fill them out and participate, no college student would ever have to miss an election again.