Picture this: you’re walking to On Call Cafe on a Tuesday night. You hear the bustling music and see the iconic yellow flag. While you take a right, you suddenly hear a voice ask: “Do you want to vote?” 

On Call Cafe, the student-run late night cafe, is collaborating with StanfordVotes to increase student voter turnout in exchange for free drinks. Every Tuesday of this quarter until Election Day, StanfordVotes sets up a table where students can request their absentee ballots and register to vote from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. Once they have completed the process, On Call Cafe offers them a free drink and snack. 

StanfordVotes is a bipartisan student-run organization that encourages turnout among Stanford students through various resources on voting and civic engagement participation. 

While some students said they were inclined to attend for the free drinks, others came because they wanted to register to vote and request absentee ballots. 

“One of the members from StanfordVotes approached me and asked me if I was registered to vote,” said Cassandra Rivero ’28, who was at Old Union to study for her math midterm. She said she would not have requested an absentee ballot if not for the event. 

Customers Tommy Ngo ’28 and Erica Liu ’28 are both originally from swing states. They took advantage of the event to ensure their voices would be heard in their respective states, which could define the election. 

“I know my vote would have more power in Iowa than in California,” Ngo said. 

StanfordVotes is helping the community make immense progress in voter turnover this year, according to co-chairs Dylan Vergara ’26 and Aubrey Merrill ’26, who were both assisting students to register to vote and request absentee ballots two weeks ago. They said that the collaboration with On Call helped push more students to engage with them than last year. 

Merrill added that a lot of Stanford students are excited to vote for this upcoming election.

“I would say we got more registration this year than the past. We got over 3,000 submissions,” she said. “But it also could be a presidential election too. On Call Cafe definitely has helped.”

The collaboration is sparking excitement not only from the attendees, but also the StanfordVotes team. Merrill, in particular, expressed interest in collaborating with the cafe again in the future.

“Everyone in On Call Cafe is really excited and the staff have been really welcoming,” she said. “We also registered some of the staff at On Call.”

Georgia Walker-Keleher ’26, On Call’s head of partnerships, said the event is in alignment with the values and goals of the Cafe.

“On Call is a space where people can share what they are passionate about,” she said. “We want to help facilitate participation in democracy.”

Similar to Merrill, Walker-Keleher believes the partnership is a step towards achieving the goals of both StanfordVotes and On Call: increase community engagement at Stanford, enhance students’ engagement with their community back at home, as well as reach more student voters.

“It’s just a win-win, that’s what On Call Cafe is all about — creating win-wins,” Walker-Keleher said.