On-campus voting sites effectively encourage students to register to vote using their campus address and make it easier for students to vote in elections. These voting sites allow students to avoid seeking transportation to (sometimes distant) off-campus locations and raise the visibility of elections, especially for primaries, specials, and off-year elections.
We recommend pursuing any on-campus voting site well in advance of the next election. Contacting local elections officials a year before a target election allows time for the planning and approval process. At any point you can reach out to the team at Campus Vote Project and Fair Elections Center for assistance at info@campusvoteproject.org.
This guide provides tangible steps, and general information, common approaches and options, and advice from campuses that have done this to help you bring a voting site to your college or university.
After reading this guide, we recommend contacting election officials or Campus Vote Project for further information and requirements specific to your situation during the steps below. You may wish to start with the chief election official for your state, which is usually the Secretary of State, or a State Board or Division of Elections. If you have an existing relationship with your local elections office you may start with them, otherwise, you should follow-up with local election officials for further details after contacting the chief election official’s office.
An inconvenient polling location is frequently cited as a barrier for student and youth voting.1 According to CIRCLE, 53% of young people with college experience who did not vote cited an issue with the polling location as the reason they did not vote.2 Pursuing a voting site can be a long process that may take months or a year, however, the increased visibility and access to the democratic process will be invaluable to your campus community and is well worth the effort.
The two most common types of voting locations are early voting sites, which are open prior to Election Day, and polling places which are only open on Election Day. Additionally, a small but growing trend is to conduct all or majority by-mail elections. If you are in one of these jurisdictions you may still be able to request a ballot drop box be located on your campus or a voting center for those needing assistance or wishing to return their mail
ballot in-person also be located on campus.
Early Voting Sites
1https://idhe.tufts.edu/resource/democracy-matters-guide-non-statutory-barriers-voting
2https://civicyouth.org/why-youth-dont-vote-differences-by-race-and-education
Most states now offer some form of in-person voting in the weeks or days leading up to an election. It is most often referred to as early voting, and in some states, called absentee in-person voting. Absentee in-person voting generally follows the same state rules for requesting an absentee ballot through the mail but allows the voter to fill out the absentee ballot request in-person, submit it, and cast a ballot in one trip.
Early voting sites usually serve all voters in a jurisdiction, meaning any voter in the county or city where the early voting site is located can go there to cast a ballot. Due to the wider number of voters served by early voting sites, this can be a good option for campuses with a substantial number of commuters or any higher education institution with a student population spread across a larger geographic area.
Election Day Polling Places
Most Election Day voting involves voters from a single precinct traveling to their assigned polling place, usually a public or semi-public building in their area like a school, fire station, or church. On-campus polling places are a good option for institutions with on-campus student residents or other compact student housing situations.
It is important to understand how effective existing voting sites are at serving your student population. It is also helpful to familiarize yourself with the voting habits of your student population. Sign up for, or utilize, your college or university’s NSLVE report to learn more about your students’ registration and turnout rates.3 When assessing the current voting sites serving students, consider the following questions:
The elections office that has authority in your jurisdiction will be the final decision maker on whether your campus will be able to host a voting site. Be prepared for your conversation with them by completing Steps 3 through 4 and coming to the meeting with thoughtful questions.
Moving an Existing Voting Site or Adjusting/Creating Precincts
It is likely that you are asking to move an existing voting site to a location that is more accessible for students, but in some instances, you may need to adjust or create precinct boundaries. Before 2014, Virginia Tech’s campus was divided into four precincts. They went through the process to consolidate the campus into two precincts that only covered student housing and shared a common on-campus voting site making it easier for
students to cast a vote.5
5https://vtnews.vt.edu/articles/2014/09/090814-vpa-votingchanges.html
If you are asking to adjust or create a precinct, there are additional things you need to discuss with your local elections office and a longer timeline should be expected.
Campus Vote Project interviewed several colleges and universities that secured an on-campus voting site voting or created and adjusted precincts. Each state and local jurisdiction have different processes and requirements but their experiences offer good advice when tackling this goal.
The biggest challenge was the lengthy process, and that sometimes the result can be dependent on one local election official who could swing the outcome. As voter advocates, we must respect the process while being strong voices for our communities.
Each campus stressed the importance of building relationships with local election officials. Many colleges and universities had participants attend local election office public meetings to learn and show election officials they were interested in elections issues beyond just voting sites.
Another valuable recommendation is to invite election officials to campus to meet with administrators, students, and other stakeholders to demonstrate how the campus is supportive of this movement.
The examples below include a campus that worked to establish and on campus polling place and another that brought early voting to campus.
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