Hannah Mosher (’29) has been appointed as a Democratic committee person in Lower Merion’s 11-2 precinct. The position is a volunteer party role elected every four years.
Committee people are responsible for voter outreach, including sharing information about election dates, polling locations and Democratic candidates, as well as helping residents register to vote. Candidates must be elected by registered Democrats in the Democratic primary in May.
Mosher sought out the role after realizing she met the eligibility requirements. “I was looking for positions that I was old enough to run for,” she said.
Lower Merion Township is divided into 14 wards, each subdivided into three voting precincts. Bryn Mawr falls within Lower Merion 11-2, which consists primarily of the college and includes several surrounding streets. The precinct had 1,445 registered voters as of October 2025, according to a Montgomery County report.
Each precinct elects two Democratic committee people. At the time Mosher applied in March, only one committee person was serving in Lower Merion 11-2. While Mosher has been appointed to the position in advance, her name will appear on the ballot for the Democratic primary.
“The first step is to get a nomination petition and get signatures,” Mosher explained. “For committee people, because the precinct is so little, it’s just 10.” Mosher initially gathered 35 signatures but had to restart the process after completing the wrong form. With one day remaining, she collected 13 signatures, and her nomination petition was accepted.
Mosher believes her role as a Bryn Mawr student could help address past barriers to voter outreach on campus. “They need someone to invite them on campus,” she said.
Organizing on a college campus also presents challenges compared with traditional neighborhood organizing. “I can hand out things on campus as far as I know, but because it’s a private college and because I’m a student at the college, I don’t know how it works for door knocking,” Mosher said. “I don’t think I can go into individual dorms and knock on the doors the same way you would in a neighborhood because it’s a private school.”
Mosher noted that nonpartisan groups such as the League of Women Voters have previously held voter registration events on campus. In past years, Bryn Mawr students have also registered to vote on campus through the Montgomery County Voter Services Mobile Outreach Van, which provides voter registration and mail-in ballot applications. Mosher expects to work at the precinct’s polling location on May 19, Pennsylvania’s primary election day.
Mosher’s interest in political organizing began in high school in Nashville, where she found youth political engagement to be limited.
“I found it very easy to contact a lot of my representatives,” Mosher said. “Not because they’re all Democratic, but because they’re really not used to young people doing anything.”
Mosher said it was often difficult to organize her peers around causes she cares about. “It’s really frustrating because they felt like such important things, and it was a struggle to get people to care about them,” she said.
Mosher’s first political experience was as a social media intern for Democratic candidate Maryam Abolfazli, who ran for election to the U.S. House of Representatives to represent Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District during the 2024 general election. Abolfazli lost to Republican incumbent Andy Ogles.
“It was really difficult to get a meaningful amount of support, even though I did get some classmates of mine to start canvassing for her, which was great,” Mosher said. “It was a good experience, but it was just impossible to reach the people.”
Mosher’s concerns about the challenges of mobilizing people to act took on new urgency in January 2025, when a student at Antioch High School shot and killed fellow student Josselin Corea Escalante, a 16-year-old girl. Escalante’s family had moved to the United States from Guatemala when she was nine years old.
Mosher said she noticed a difference in the public response to Escalante’s death compared with a shooting at the Covenant School in March 2023, when a former student killed three 9-year-olds and three adults.
“There were huge rallies for students at Covenant School. People from all over, mostly parents from the school … people who wouldn’t be politically active if any bad thing had happened other than a white Christian school that was victim to a school shooting,” she said.
Frustrated by the lack of response she saw to the Antioch High School shooting, Mosher and her friend decided to organize a rally for gun law reform at the Tennessee State Capitol.
“I met her family. It was on the Capitol steps, and her family came up to the front and was holding her giant quinceañera photo, and she looks gorgeous,” Mosher said. “She’s in this really pretty red dress, and it’s just so sad.”
“It was a really good experience, but very sad and disheartening,” she added. “That’s why I’m interested in politics. No one else was going to organize anything.”
Mosher has been motivated by the level of political engagement among Bryn Mawr students. “It’s really nice here, because I feel like everyone is very involved and more tuned in than what I’m used to,” she said.
She encouraged students to attend events and seek out opportunities through platforms such as Mobilize, a volunteer recruitment platform used by progressive organizations, labor unions and Democratic political campaigns. “Everyone is really eager for young people to be involved,” Mosher said. “It’s difficult to figure out how to involve yourself, but people are really friendly and excited if you go to things.”
“If you don’t like how it’s being done, then go bother them,” she said.
Students can register to vote in Pennsylvania, including applying for a mail-in ballot, at https://www.pavoterservices.pa.gov. The deadline to register to vote is May 4, and the deadline to apply for a mail-in ballot is May 12. Mosher recommends that student Democrats on campus follow @lowermerion_narberthdems on Instagram to stay in the loop.
