Motivating student voter registration

Abstract

College student voter turnout reflects the degree to which students are being taught to support and protect democracy, long a core mission of the U.S. higher education system. Yet, college student voter turnout is generally very low. In 2020–2021, campuses around the country participated in a coordinated program to increase college student voter registration during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using survey and focus group data collected in spring 2021, we find evidence of understudied barriers to student registration that continue to restrict the effectiveness of those efforts. Specifically, we find that students need help determining whether or how to choose a political party affiliation and whether to register with their campus address. Efforts to help students surmount these understudied challenges are a potentially powerful means of increasing youth registration and turnout. We also find that students operated as knowledge brokers, sharing with family members the information they were receiving on campus about how to register and vote using new virtual options offered due to the pandemic.