Move-in day usually means finding the dining hall and meeting your new roommate. At the University of Central Florida, some students were also figuring out how to register to vote.
That was the goal of “Dorm Storm,” an annual voter registration drive organized by People Power For Florida. Volunteers set up around campuses statewide as thousands of incoming students moved in, approaching people who may be registering for the first time or updating their address after moving away from home.
Gabriel Purselley, an incoming freshman at UCF who just finished moving to campus, was one of them.
He had not been registered during Florida’s primary, so he could not vote.
“It felt good,” Purselley said after registering. “Felt like I could voice my speech louder, something I couldn't do before, but now I could.”
Gavin Prather, also an incoming freshman, registered too, but said the experience also made it clear how much he still does not know about the voting process.
“I’m definitely not as informed as most people, I feel like,” Prather said. “I didn't know you had to pick a party to actually have to vote and stuff like that.”
But People Power For Florida said that kind of uncertainty about the voting process is common among young voters, leaving a gap in who is registered.
In Orange County, about 22,000 young people turn 18 every year. Just 33% of those 18-year-olds are registered to vote, compared with 76% of people aged 45 and older.
The Civics Center estimates about 14,000 additional 18-year-olds in Orange County could be registered if the county's entire 18-year-old population was on board.
The gap exists across all of Central Florida.
In Osceola County, 57% of 18-year-olds are registered, compared with 77% of older voters.
In Polk County, it is 49% compared with 77%.
In Brevard, 58% compared with 85%.
And in Volusia, 49% compared with 84%.
Statewide, the gap is similar. The Civics Center says 47% of 18-year-olds in Florida were registered as of May 2026, compared with 78% of people 45 and older.
Juan Ardila, the state director People Power For Florida, said about half of the students his group encounters during Dorm Storm are not registered at all.
The other half, he said, are often registered somewhere else but have not updated their address to campus.
“[For] many of them it's their first time living in Florida or their first time living in this county,” Ardila said. “So almost every single one of them can either register for the first time or update their address ahead of the election.”
He said another major misconception is that out-of-state students can not vote in Florida. Students living in Florida can be eligible to register here, even if they came from another state.
Anna Eskamani, Democratic state representative and the founder of Power People For Florida, said she has seen students mistakenly assume they can vote at their university on Election Day simply because they attend school there.
“I have driven many students over the years to their correct polling location off campus,” she said.
Eskamani, who is also running for mayor of Orlando, said universities could help close some of these information gaps without telling students how to vote.
She suggests putting nonpartisan voting information into orientation, student emails and online courses, including registration deadlines and information about where students can vote.
“We do have the option to register to vote online, [it’s] not well-promoted,” Eskamani said. “But universities could easily activate students by emailing that link to the entire student body.”
She also said universities could provide reminders about elections and direct students to nonpartisan resources where they can learn about their ballots, candidates, and future voting rule changes.
For example, a 2026 elections law signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis makes several changes to voter registration and election administration, including a provision taking effect in 2027 that will no longer allow student IDs to be used as identification at polling places.
“We do a lot of this in our capacity as a nonprofit organization, but when a system embraces civic engagement awareness, a lot can happen pretty quickly with not a huge cost, maybe just an investment of time, not necessarily the dollar,” Eskamani said.
There’s also a practical reason why organizers said they are focusing on college campuses. Ardila said the Florida House district covering UCF was decided by about 400 votes in 2024.
“So if we registered 100 students to vote this weekend, another 100 next weekend, those could be the deciding votes of any election here,” he said.
People Power For Florida said they estimate registering over 1,000 new voters during their Dorm Storm event across the state.
