College of DuPage will bus students to an early voting site for free on Tuesday, Oct. 27. The Glen Ellyn campus's student-run COD Votes committee is organizing about four trips to a location roughly three minutes away, ahead of the Tuesday, Nov. 3, midterm elections.

COD Votes, a committee of the Student Leadership Council (SLC), hopes to take at least 50 students, according to the COD Courier. The specific voting site has not been announced. Students can sign up at a table near the cafeteria entrance on the first floor of the Student Resource Center, then meet their bus at the same spot on Oct. 27.

Eddie Contreras, who leads civic engagement for the SLC, said the team focuses on two goals: getting students to vote and helping them understand what elected officials do. COD Votes adviser Nina Dunn said the effort covers local races that shape roads, schools and taxes.

To reach commuter students who rarely linger on campus, the team presents in classrooms and joins Zoom sessions for online classes. "We're able to reach the population of students that only go to class and just go straight home afterwards," Contreras told the COD Courier.

The ride to the polls caps a Student Voter Week running Monday, Oct. 26, through Thursday, Oct. 29. Events include Donuts for Democracy and a Trivia Night tied to an annotated sample ballot. Democracy fellow Joanna Osorio said the ballot will walk students through each position on their actual ballot.

Four paid Democracy Fellows run the outreach alongside Contreras and Dunn. The fellows completed COD's Civic Leaders Program. They are David Diep, Osorio, Rain Rodriguez and Chitra Iyter.

The effort builds on momentum from National Voter Registration Day, when SLC volunteers reached 490 students in three hours. "To get one person to stop and think about what we were doing or to think if they were registered to vote was considered a win for me," Contreras said at the Sept. 18 COD Board of Trustees meeting.

The National Association of Student Personnel Administrators and the Campus Vote Project named College of DuPage a "Voter Friendly Campus" for 2025-2026, according to April 2025 board of trustees meeting minutes. COD is one of only two Illinois community colleges to earn the designation, the college's president reported at that meeting.

Students who want to check their registration or request a mail-in ballot can visit cod.turbovote.org. Dunn said the tool works for students in DuPage, Will or Cook counties.

DuPage County voters can cast an early ballot at any location in the county, according to CBS News Chicago. Open sites include the Glen Ellyn Civic Center at 535 Duane St. and Yorktown Center in Lombard. Both are open weekdays 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. and weekends 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. through Election Day.

Students planning same-day voter registration on Oct. 27 should bring legal identification. Questions about sign-up or documentation can go to Contreras at [email protected].