麻豆原创 student voters in the past two midterm elections 鈥� 2014 and 2018 鈥� improved their voting rate by nearly 23 percent, and their turnout of 48.3 percent was 9.2 percent higher than the national average of other higher education institutions.
The statistics were part of a new study of 51,151 麻豆原创 registered voters and other students at more than 1,000 U.S. universities and colleges, according to the National Study of Learning, Voting and Engagement conducted by researchers at Tufts University.
Haley G. Winston, assistant director of the 麻豆原创 Office of Student Involvement, largely credited the increase to the university鈥檚 , which outlines a program to support registrations, voting events, social media campaigns and other outreach.
鈥淲e have both passive and active voter registration drives on campus,鈥� Winston says. 鈥淲e participate in the , Campus Election Engagement Project and the .聽All of these national outlets give us ways to engage students.鈥�
The campus also hosted a 2018 early voting location in the Live Oak Room on the main campus.
麻豆原创 says it pushes the election process because civic skills 鈥� like voting 鈥� are life-long skills.
As a result of all the efforts, at the most recent midterm election there were 30,223 麻豆原创 student voters.
The option of early voting helped drive the increase. While in-person election day voting and absentee voting both dipped in 2018, the early voting jumped from 25 percent of the total ballots cast in 2014 to 39.4 percent in 2018.
麻豆原创 says it pushes the election process because civic skills 鈥� like voting 鈥� are life-long skills.
鈥淚f students learn the voting process early they will be life-long active citizens,鈥� Winston says. 鈥淲e are very big on educating student about using their voice through their vote.鈥�
Voting in presidential election years is typically higher than in midterm years. 麻豆原创 had a 61 percent voting rate in the 2016 presidential election and has set a goal of achieving 70 percent student voting in next year鈥檚 election.
Already this year, 麻豆原创 was recognized as one of the 123 Voter Friendly Campuses by NASPA, and Washington Monthly magazine ranked the university as one of the 80 best in the nation for student voting.
