Engagement Opportunity: ACUI has You Prepped for the 2024 Election

Four years ago, just prior to the 2020 U.S. presidential election, student union directors across the country were preparing for the aftereffects students were likely to feel, no matter their views, politics, or party affiliation. Even though social distancing and virtual-only operations were in place nationwide, Earlham College was one example of a campus that created post-election safe spaces through a collaboration with multiple divisions—counseling services, religious life, student government, and student life professionals.

The same was true at San Jose State University, where the Associated Students board of directors planned events designed for students to safely celebrate, grieve, decompress, or share in dialogue. And they weren’t just held on the night of the election or on the night after. They were also scheduled a week and two weeks out on the calendar.

Florida State University’s housing and student services staff joined student union and childcare staff to conduct listening sessions for both staff and students, and then engaged the Florida State College of Medicine to collaborate in the creation of mindfulness events and activity stations at its outdoor labyrinth.

Four years later, as the 2024 U.S. presidential election approaches, there is no less an air of stress and anxiety. Since the last presidential election, there was the storming of the U.S. Capitol, widespread efforts to delegitimize local election officials, and legislative efforts to adopt laws restricting access to voting. In some cases, college students were particularly targeted by efforts to thwart a recognized increase in student voting. Here are a few of the numbers, generated by Tufts University’s National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement, on the rising tide of student voting:

• In the 2020 presidential election, the national student voting rate was 66%, a 14-point increase from 2016 and nearly matching the Census-based voter turnout estimate (67%) for the entire U.S. population.
• Participation rose nearly universally: 97% of campuses in the study saw some level of increase in student voter turnout in 2020 compared to 2016.
• In 2020, the rate of registered students who then voted hit 80%, up from 69% in 2016.
• Students ages 18–21 defied national patterns and prior student voting patterns and voted at slightly higher rates than older students.
• Despite gains across the board, the highest voting rates were achieved at private institutions. Voting rates at private bachelor’s degree-granting institutions jumped to 75% in 2020, an increase of 17 percentage points over 2016. Students at women’s colleges voted at a rate of 76%.

In Ohio, legislation was signed into law that students and university leaders said would make it more difficult for out-of-state student to cast ballots: A strict photo ID law like those in place in eight other states (Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Wisconsin).

Last year in Idaho, a new law removed student IDs as a valid form of identification, after the state saw a national record 66% increase in 18- and 19-year-olds registering to vote between 2018 and 2022. Student IDs also cannot be used in North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas.

In Florida, efforts to register college students on campuses have been stymied by a new law that increased the penalties and restrictions for third parties conducting voter registration drives. One University of South Florida student, Alexis Hobbs, told Inside Higher Education that “most college clubs have just completely stopped doing” voter registration.

Other efforts to limit student voting failed, like the attempt in Texas to remove polling places from campuses; and in some states where efforts were made to expand opportunities for students to vote, like in New York, the results came up short. Research presented by the Bard University Center for Civic Engagement found that while New York did enact a law in 2022 requiring general election polling places on campuses with at least 300 registered voters living on campus, college voter turnout in the state in 2022 was under 30%. The research found that a majority of colleges in New York did not have on-campus poll sites and there had been almost no change since the passage of this legislation.

To prepare ACUI members, their staff and student employees, and their student populations for the upcoming presidential election, a one-stop webpage of election resources was created. In addition, ACUI is planning a series of virtual events. Online events include an Election Season Preparation Webinar (September 10), an Ask the Experts session on legal and free speech issues (October), a post-election Hot Topics Roundtable (November 19), and a Post-Inauguration Check-In Webinar to be offered in early 2025.

And if you are looking for in-person engagement, the first-ever in-person Active Dialogue Institute is set for September 18–19 at Rutgers University’s Busch Student Center (registration is still open for this event).

The page also provides online access to a variety of vetted resources related to engagement, voting information, and additional resources already available through the upcoming Active Dialogue Institute event. One of those resources, the Constructive Dialogue Institute, offered three basic principles to campus staff working to maintain campus community leading up to the election. Those principles are:

• Rather than treating the 2024 election as an isolated event, leverage your existing campus investments in cultural transformation and trust building.
• Investing heavily in proactive strategies before November 2024, rather than relying solely on reactive measures, will pay dividends in preventing conflict.
• Campuses require proactive leadership and a clear vision from the top to inspire coordinated efforts across every layer of an institution’s system.

Increased student voter turnout trended upward again in 2022 as the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision drove 18–29-year-old voters to the polls, Tufts University researchers found, while organizers with the non-partisan student voter advocacy group ALL IN recognized that involvement on campus increases student voter participation. Credited with successful student voting campaigns like the Big 10 Voting Challenge, ALL IN noted after the 2020 midterms: “The research is clear: colleges and universities that make intentional efforts to increase nonpartisan democratic engagement have higher campus voter registration and voter turnout rates.”