by Emily Sydnor and Sarah Brackmann
Presidential nomination season is upon us. While it seems as if the selection of the major parties' presidential candidates is a foregone conclusion, American engagement with the election process is nonetheless vital for the hundreds of other federal, state, and local offices that will be filled by the victors of both the spring primaries and November general election. Yet only about half of people aged 18-29 voted in the 2020 presidential election. Higher education as a profession is poised to increase youth voter turnout this election year; not only because colleges and universities are the primary institutions structuring young adults' lives, but also because many have -- as their core purpose -- educating for the public good and transforming students into engaged community leaders.
We have the potential to cement students' civic habits, but instead we see the hollowing out of the civic mission of higher education. The culture wars have come to higher education. State legislation ending tenure for faculty and eliminating diversity, equity, and inclusion offices also freezes dialogue on campuses and leaves administrators, faculty, and staff wary of appearing too partisan in our polarized political environment. So, how does an institution remain bipartisan (or nonpartisan) while educating students about when, where, why, and how to register and cast a ballot? Below, we share recommendations based on our experience developing and advising the student voting coalition at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas.
"How" and "where" are not partisan questions. It might feel like the process of voting has become yet another casualty of the battle between Democrats and Republicans, but the bottom line is that research in political science and adjacent disciplines provides many clear best practices for schools interested in developing their nonpartisan voting efforts. For example, having polling places nearby increases the likelihood that anyone will go vote, but is especially important for groups, like college students, who may not have continued or easy access to a vehicle or public transportation. One study found that people without a car are unlikely to vote when their polling place is more than half a mile away; another demonstrated that changing the location of polling places in Los Angeles County reduced voter turnout by increasing the effort participants had to put into the process. The takeaway for colleges and universities trying to improve voting efforts on campus is clear: one priority should be to work with the local government to put a polling place on campus.
When it comes to the mechanics of how students vote, we focus mainly on the process, highlighting the different avenues available for students regarding where they register and how they cast a ballot. Students can register at their home address or their campus address, but the easier we make the entire process, the more likely they are to follow through on their intention to vote. At Southwestern, this starts with a range of on-campus voter registration events (Texas does not allow online voter registration). In the month leading up to the start of Early Voting, we also encourage everyone on campus to "make a plan." Research shows that planning to vote, including identifying what format you will use, what identification you will bring, and where you will physically cast your ballot, can dramatically increase an individual's probability of voting. While we implemented our voting plan initiative using resources already available on campus, Motivote software also does some of the heavy lifting to make this process more interesting and engaging to members of the campus community.
Focus on the non-partisan "why." There are all sorts of reasons why anyone votes. Some of these reasons clearly align with partisan mobilization: representation of one's myriad identities or strong opinions about contemporary policy issues, for example. Others have nothing to do with which "team" you support, and many of these can be just as motivating as the traditional partisan arguments. A sense of civic duty inspires many people, young and old, to show up to the polls. Socialization in families, friendships, and communities that value voting as a group activity can increase the likelihood of actually casting a ballot. While it might not be the most noble of "whys," voting because it's what all your friends and neighbors do is still voting. Peer-to-peer outreach emphasizing all of these messages can be an effective way to encourage voter registration and turnout on campus while maintaining clear distance from the partisan battles shaping national political discourse.
Institutionalize your coalition. To do this work successfully, it is vital to have a coalition of committed students, faculty, and staff on campus and to partner with the great organizations working to increase student voter engagement nationwide. At Southwestern, we've embedded voter registration and voter engagement throughout the student experience, whether by registering them to vote on campus at the President's dinner for first-year students when they arrive in August or by sharing plug-and-play syllabus language with dates and important links with faculty campus-wide. Our student coalition, SU Votes!, collaborates with student organizations from the Interfraternity Council to university athletics and the Coalition for Diversity and Social Justice, an umbrella organization for student groups centered around issues of cultural and social identity. We've been fortunate that university administration, faculty, staff, and students are all supportive of our work in the last several elections, but even when they've been more hesitant, there is enough momentum among the students to keep a grassroots effort alive on campus.
This sustained momentum would not be possible, however, without the financial support and accountability efforts by our national partners. The ALL-IN Campus Democracy Challenge and Campus Vote Project's Voter Friendly Campus designation were our first steps into the world of student voter engagement. Both programs force us to develop a plan, focus on outcomes, and evaluate our efforts using concrete measures of success. The plans then serve as a touchstone for the students, teaching them skills in "SMART" goal-setting and program evaluation, and empowering them to design programming that aligns with their goals. The National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement, an opt-in data initiative, has been vital to program assessment, providing us with verified student registration and voting rates. The Campus Vote Project's Democracy Fellows initiative provides financial support and a virtual community for students who are interested in leading campus voting efforts. And our engagement with these programs and others has opened doors to small grants to fund this work, which has no designated university budget line.
We won't sugarcoat it: maintaining a nonpartisan voter engagement effort on your campus is not easy. It takes time to get buy-in from the campus community, and ensuring continuity as student leaders graduate and new ones take their place can be a serious hurdle. But the investment pays off -- in the short-term sense of shared success when the campus hits a turnout milestone and the longer-term institutional cultivation of young people's civic mindset.
This article is republished from HigherEdJobs® under a Creative Commons license.