Washington Monthly - September/October 2021 - 39

AMERICA'S BEST
COLLEGES FOR
STUDENT VOTING
The schools doing the most to turn students into citizens.
By Daniel Block
T
he 2020 presidential election happened amid extraordinary
levels of voter turnout. According to the Census
Bureau, 66.8 percent of eligible adults cast ballots in the
race, the highest rate since 1992. Other estimates suggest that
last year's turnout rate bested the 1992 level, and may be the
highest since 1900.
As usual, rates correlated heavily with age. But for the first
time since the U.S. let 18-year-olds vote, more than half of all
18- to 24-year-olds cast ballots. The 51.4 percent of young people
who voted blows the 2016 mark-39.4 percent-out of the
water. In fact, the increase in youth voting is one of the most
striking shifts among any demographic. Turnout among 18to
24-year-olds grew by more than double the overall increase
from 2016: 12 percentage points versus 5.4 points.
The surge in youth voting stemmed, in part, from how
charged the election was. Donald Trump is a mobilization machine,
and his polarizing presence atop the ticket turned out
millions of progressives and conservatives who might have
otherwise stayed home. But part of why youth turnout shot up
is thanks to the deliberate work of student voting organizers,
who mobilized young Americans to register and cast ballots
despite the pandemic and restrictive voting laws. This includes
national groups like the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge,
which helps schools develop registration and turnout plans. It
also includes smaller, local organizations. Special credit goes to
the many on-campus, student-led groups that worked to get
their peers to the polls.
But student organizers have the best chance of success
when they are actively supported by their administrations.
That's why each year at the Monthly, we release an honor roll
listing the colleges doing the most to turn their students into
citizens. To make the honor roll, schools must meet multiple
criteria. For this year's iteration, they had to submit action
plans to ALL IN for 2018 and 2020. Schools needed to have
signed up to receive data from the National Study of Learning,
Voting, and Engagement (NSLVE), which calculates collegespecific
registration and voting rates. (Information for 2020 is
not yet available.) And they must have made both their 2016
and 2018 NSLVE data available to the public. In short, schools
need to have shown a repeated commitment to increasing student
voting-and have been transparent about the results.
Like youth voting rates overall, our honor roll grew. This
year, a total of 204 schools made the list, 47 more institutions
than in 2020. What didn't change is the eclectic nature of the
honored campuses. There are plenty of elite schools on the list,
such as Northwestern University. But, as was true last year,
plenty of famous colleges missed out. The majority of honorees
are public institutions, including many community colleges.
The list relies on participation in programs such as ALL
IN and NSLVE because raw turnout data isn't available for all
institutions. But to reward truly standout colleges, we ordered
the honor roll by voter registration rate. The top-performing
school-the Maryland Institute College of Art, or MICA-
receives its own distinction for having a registration rate above
95 percent. The next 15 schools are also specially demarcated
for topping 85 percent.
It is wonderful to see that both our honor roll and youth
voting grew. But that doesn't mean colleges or activists can rest
on their laurels. There are more than 1,000 schools that don't
make the cut. Youth turnout rates continue to sit far below the
rate for older Americans. It is unclear if Generation Z will turn
out in force in 2022 or 2024, especially if Trump doesn't challenge
Biden. And GOP-controlled states are already at work
passing new, even more burdensome restrictions to the franchise.
Maintaining last year's youth voting rates will be a battle.
Increasing turnout further will be a war.
But it's one that we're prepared to wage at the Monthly.
We have faith that activists will continue to fight as well. Many
of today's leading political issues-especially the devastation
wrought by climate change-are of particular importance to
younger generations. It is imperative that colleges do everything
they can to get their students to vote.
Daniel Block is the executive editor of the Washington Monthly.
Washington Monthly 39
Washington Monthly - September/October 2021

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