Encouraging Student Voter Participation During COVID: Lessons for the Future

• In Event: The Role of Education in Civic Engagement

Abstract

Universities commonly provide civic engagement and leadership training to their students with the goal of enhancing youth political participation. The 2020 Presidential Election presented cross-current factors that could simultaneously encourage and discourage student voter participation. Research suggests (Block, 2020) that the summer’s activism around police brutality and racial injustice should motivate students to vote in the November 2020 elections. Furthermore, Georgia’s online voter registration (Yu, 2019) no-excuse early and mail-in voting, and the presence of Campus Election Engagement (CEEP) provided supplemental support structures for increased student engagement. Conversely, fear of exposure to COVID, potential issues at voting locations such as long lines, and students registered at a place where they are not registered (Block, 2020).

The 2018 elections in Georgia, and particularly on the University of West Georgia (UWG) campus, were accompanied by allegations of voter fraud and suppression. Approximately 600 students were given provisional ballots at the on-campus polling location. During early 2020, a Department of Civic Engagement was established to focus faculty and program efforts fostering civically engaged students. Were these efforts enough to begin a normalization of voter participation in the UWG student body?

Building on the suggestions of Hill and Lachelier (2014), this research seeks to understand whether methods to increase student voting were effective and how they can continue to be normalized. Using information from interview data with the manager of the on-campus polling location, National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement (NSLVE) data, and student feedback surveys, we identify the lessons learned during a difficult election and consider how these can be normalized in the faculty, staff, and students going forward.

Authors

• Kathleen Regina Barrett, University of West Georgia

• Chapman Rackaway, Radford University