Kaytee Wisley
Fort Hays State University
Kaytee Wisley, a fourth-year student at Fort Hays State University, is active in voter engagement. IN her work as the student coordinator for the American Democracy Project, Kaytee organized voter registration drives across campus and doubled youth turnout in the 2018 mid-term election. She currently serves as the Legislative Affairs Director for Student Government Association, continuing to register students to vote and working on educating them on their rights. She also serves as an intern for the League of Women Voters, organizing their local initiative, "March to the Polls," aiming to reach the least-likely voters in Ellis County, Kansas. Kaytee is known for her collaborative leadership approach to voter registration, aiming to get student organizations across campus active in democracy.
Personal Statement
I advocate for voting rights, including helping others register to vote to raising awareness of voter suppression. I have dedicated my undergraduate career to educating members of the on campus and Hays community to vote. My first leadership position advocating for voting rights was as a student coordinator for the American Democracy Project. In this role, I hosted voter registration drives and educated students on civic literacy. These efforts doubled voter turnout on-campus in the 2018 mid-term election. I also served as a representative for the Ellis County Coalition for Citizen Participation, which exposed flaws in our current election system. We found Ellis County had high rates of discarded provisional ballots and discovered that many students were denied the right to vote using student ID cards as a form of identification.
I currently serve as an intern for the League of Women Voters Kansas to organize voter registration for the 2020 election. We work to reach unregistered voters in Ellis County including those in minorities, low-income brackets, and college students. I work for the Student Government Association as Legislative Affairs Director and continue to encourage voter registration. I am working to establish an on-campus polling place to increase student-voting access.
