Mia Lasic-Ellis

The Bears at the Ballot competition, which ran from Tuesday, October 19, to Tuesday, October 26, ended in a three-way tie between Nordic skiing, women’s hockey and women’s basketball, with each team’s entire roster making a plan to vote.

The competition was created by Caroline Clinton ’27 in 2024 after she identified a troubling pattern among the Bowdoin student-athletes she knew.

“I was noticing that among my athlete friends, people didn’t necessarily know … how to make a voting plan,” Clinton said. “And if they did know, they didn’t really seek it out … [because] there wasn’t necessarily a group push to [vote].”

Bears at the Ballot is run by Bowdoin Votes, the only nonpartisan civic engagement advocacy group at Bowdoin. Clinton, a former varsity lacrosse player and a Bowdoin Votes Program Coordinator, wanted to combine the competition of sports with an initiative that would encourage voter engagement.

“Our goal at Bowdoin Votes is to find groups where they are, and cater to their interests,” Clinton said. “[I thought] I’m gonna do that with athletes; I’m gonna create a competition.”

Ashmead White Executive Director of Athletics Tim Ryan explained the origin of the Bears at the Ballots competition.

“The NESCAC and the student-athlete advisory committee representatives from across the conference, over the years, kept coming up with ways to try to promote engagement in the voting process on campus within the conference,” Ryan said. “And from that, the Bowdoin Votes effort on campus emerged, in a partnership with the McKeen Center. The whole idea was just to provide educational resources and promote—in a non-partisan way—engagement in the democratic process that we have in the United States.”

Ryan also described the previous efforts to promote athlete voting participation.

“Historically, the efforts have been similar, in terms of trying to promote education and engagement, and the idea of having a competition is something that was initiated in 2020,” Ryan said. “What is in place now is a byproduct of efforts that were in place that all the different schools in the NESCAC [participated in]. We’ve had a number of students over the years who have looked to amplify and improve those efforts, and the benefit of that is the current system that we have in place.”

Bowdoin Votes Democracy Ambassador Caden Christopher ’30 explained the importance of reaching student-athletes specifically.

“Athletes often have a very busy schedule and it’s hard for them to figure out the logistics of their voting,” Christopher said. “So we wanted to have a project where we made it easier to remind them that they should vote and be civically engaged.”

Clinton described the process of running the initiative. Before reaching out to student-athletes at large, Bowdoin Votes got the ball rolling by contacting athletic captains and officials.

“We sent out an email to kick it off—first, to coaches and team leaders to say, ‘Hey, this is coming up, get prepared,’” Clinton said. “And then on [October]19th, [we] sent out an email to all athletes with the [Bears at the Ballot] form, information about it, and further information about how to vote.”

Nordic skiing, women’s hockey, and women’s basketball all reached 100% member participation. Ruth Krebs ’29, a member of the Nordic skiing team, commented on how the competition fosters voting participation.

“Sometimes I think that there’s a little bit of a division between athletes and other parts of Bowdoin’s campus …,” Krebs said. “I think it’s important that athletes are engaged civically.”

Clinton hopes that the initiative will inspire even more athletes to become involved in their communities. Whether voting in Maine or back home, students can make an impact.

“Finding ways that athletes can participate in the Bowdoin and also [the] Brunswick community beyond athletics is really important,” Clinton said. “It’s nice to rally camaraderie around that, and to use these structures to inform more people.”

Athlete turnout this year was substantial, with 372 of 803 athletes—just over 46 percent— participating in the event.

Krebs summed up the spirit of the event and the larger goal of Bowdoin Votes.

“There’s no I in Go U Bears,” Krebs said.