ACT hosts second voter registration drive of 2024
On September 25, 2024, the Dukakis Center hosted a voter registration drive on campus for American study abroad students currently enrolled to take courses at ACT. The effort was supported by ACT’s department of student services and by resident NUin staff from Northeastern University.
Assisting in the proceedings were two Dukakis Center volunteers, Despina Krlevski and Michael Hatsiulis, themselves US citizens.
Upwards of 40 study abroad students availed themselves of the opportunity to register (or confirm their registration) and request an absentee ballot. Two study abroad students, Shayne Buddman and Kristina Dolgacheva, later visited the US Consulate General to submit their ballots to be sent Stateside via diplomatic pouch, and to meet with the current Consul General Jerry Ismail.
This was the second voter registration drive this year for the benefit of Americans residing in Thessaloniki who intend to vote in the 2024 General Election. The first took place in March, when the Dukakis Center also hosted the Global Democratic Presidential Primary, and assisted some 50 study abroad students wishing to register to vote.
Dukakis Center personnel continued to advise the American student cohort in an ad hoc manner right up to the end of October to ensure that anyone wishing to vote was encouraged to do so.
The Center has organized innumerable events on elections in Greece, the EU, and the USA since 2000. The emphasis on voting and elections supplements the Center's work on the 2023 Greek parliamentary elections, which included a landmark poll on the youth vote conducted at the Center's behest by the market research firm Ierax Analytix.
Similarly, a pair of Dukakis Center volunteers conducted an exit poll during the Global Primary, while other interns added to their findings from a poll of first-time candidates who campaigned in 2023. Current intern Michael Hatsiulis is conducting in-house polling exercises during the electoral and post-electoral periods as part of his internship.
The mission of the Dukakis Center, based on the campus of the American College of Thessaloniki, is to inspire young people from both sides of the Atlantic to take an active interest in public affairs. The Center is celebrating its Silver Jubilee season of public service initiatives in 2024-25.
