The University of Minnesota Morris reports that student voting increased in last year’s presidential election, rising to 75.8% in 2020 from a rate of 73.9% in 2016. Read the full report.
Morris Campus Student Association President Julia Scovil ’22 says, "I am extremely proud to see how many of our students are not only registered to vote, but how many also exercised that right in the 2020 election. Morris has always been a campus that boasts our involvement and civic engagement, and our students proved just how true that is in the last election. I trust that this trend will continue and students will make their voices heard in future elections."
Now the student body president, Scovil also served as an intern last year for campus get-out-the-vote efforts. To encourage students to vote, she engaged student groups across campus, placed ads with the student newspaper and radio station, coordinated efforts to chalk sidewalks with reminders on election day, and provided buttons and posters to Community Advisors in residence halls. She notes, "This was a different strategy from previous years, since COVID made it nearly impossible to hold big events or spread the importance of voting by word of mouth, and I am proud to see the results."
Thinking about the motivating people to vote, Scovil says, "I think people usually plan to vote. They just need enough reminders to make sure they don't miss deadlines. My goal was to make sure that no one could walk away from the election period and say they had not heard or seen anything about voting in the 2020 election."
The results speak for themselves. In addition to seeing an increase over 2016 student voting rates, UMN Morris came in nearly 10 percentage points above the national average of 66%. And in 2020, nearly 90% of UMN Morris students were registered to vote.
About the Report
This report is part of the National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement, or NSLVE, conducted by the Institute for Democracy & Higher Education (IDHE) at Tufts University’s Tisch College of Civic Life. Nationwide, the study’s authors report a record-breaking set of findings. On campuses across the country, students voted at high rates in the 2020 election, with voter turnout jumping to 66% in last year’s presidential election. The 14 percentage point increase, from 52% turnout in the 2016 election, outpaces that of all Americans, which jumped six percentage points from 61% to 67%, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
IDHE’s National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement (NSLVE, pronounced n-solve) is the nation’s largest study of college and university student voting. Nearly 1,200 campuses in all 50 states and the District of Columbia participate. IDHE does not receive any information that could individually identify students or how they voted. The study provides reports to participating colleges and universities, like UMN Morris, which use them to support political learning and civic engagement, as well as to identify and address gaps in political and civic participation.
About IDHE
Part of Tufts University's Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life, the Institute for Democracy & Higher Education (IDHE) is an applied research center focused on college and university student political learning and engagement in democracy. IDHE researchers study student voting, equity, campus conditions for student political learning, discourse, participation, and agency for underrepresented and marginalized students. IDHE's signature initiative, the National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement, or NSLVE, is a service to colleges and universities that provides participating institutions with tailored reports of their students' voting rates. Launched in 2013 with 250 campuses, the study now serves nearly 1,200 institutions in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.