Young Invincibles

Students Learn Students Vote Checklist

Higher education’s focus on civic engagement not only helps students to better understand their impact on those around them, it creates better students. Encouraging and assisting your students to vote will establish participatory habits that will last well beyond their collegiate experience. Incorporating democratic engagement into campus life creates structure and stability for students as they explore what their political beliefs are, and how they would like to engage in the democratic process.

The Higher Education Act of 1965 requires institutions to distribute voter registration forms to their students. However, beyond that, instructions and guidance are vague. The Campus Vote Project and Young Invincibles have created a more measurable (and manageable) set of guidelines for schools to follow to create a more voter friendly campus.

The Students Learn Students Vote Checklist a 4-step process to integrate civic engagement into campus culture.

The Checklist

Lead: Ensure a person is appointed by a respected campus leader to lead your student civic engagement programs.
Assess: Measure your campus voting rate.

One example of how to measure your campus voting rate is by registering for the National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement (NSLVE), a study that coordinates with the National Student Clearinghouse to match public voting records with anonymized student enrollment records, allowing you to effectively measure the registration and voting rates for your school.
NSLVE is free, confidential, and protective of student privacy.
More information can be found at: http://activecitizen.tufts.edu/research/NSLVE

Engage: Convene a meeting of relevant administrators from student affairs, academics affairs, government relations, as well as faculty and student leadership to discuss a campus-wide effort to increase civic learning and participation
Plan: Draft and submit a written plan for increasing your campus-wide civic engagement.

Submit your plan to SLSVChecklist@gmail.com.

Things to Consider When Writing Your Plan

You can write your plan in the format that works best for you and your institution. We’ve seen reports work just as successfully as a well-built PowerPoint presentation.

You can see CVP’s planning worksheet here.

Your plan should address each of the following:

Basic information

Who will be managing this effort? Please provide their name, phone number, email, job title, office within the academic institution.

Your coalition

Who are the other team members who will be involved with these efforts? Example members include student leaders, deans, staffers and faculty. If not yet known, what are the academic institution’s offices that will be involved?

Who else in your coalition will carry leadership responsibilities in implementing the plan?

Who are your community partners?

Your checklist

What promising practices are you going to implement for each of the following? If you are already implementing any additional best practices please list those as well.

Voter Registration
Voter Education
Ballot Access
Get Out the Vote

What resources do you have available to you? Please include all community partner resources as well.
What additional resources would be helpful to you as you begin implementing your plan?
If you anticipate any significant implementation challenges, how will you navigate them?

Your timeline

How often will your coalition meet?
With the goal of having additional civic engagement practices in place by the next election, what are you going to have completed halfway through and at the end of each semester between now and then?
At what point in the next year will you evaluate the successes and challenges of your current plan once it is completed?

Measuring success

What is your plan for gathering data to measure impact?
What is your plan to learn from that data?

Q&A: Your Rights at The Polling Place

01. What can a poll worker ask me?

The elections officer will ask you to present your ID and tell them your full name and address.

02. Who can I speak to if I am having any issues or problems with a poll worker?

Attempt to inform another poll worker of your issue. If this does not resolve the issue, call Election Protection. You may also contact county election officials if speaking to another poll worker does not resolve the issue. You can also report any incidents regarding voter intimidation to the Secretary of State’s Office or call 1-877-THE-VOTE.

03. I notice some poll watchers are taking photographs inside the polling place. Is that allowed?

No photography or video recording is allowed in a polling place.

04. Who gets to decide who is inside the polling place?

Arizona law allows the following people to be inside the polling place:

Voters must move outside the 75-foot limit around the polling place after they finish voting.

05. Who can I talk to if someone is trying to get in the way of me completing my ballot?

Speak to the election inspector or marshal. They have the authority to remove disruptive people from the voting location and to decide whether to contact law enforcement or the officer in charge of elections. If that does not resolve the issue, call Election Protection.

06. What are my rights if I need help voting?

Voters are entitled to assistance. If a voter has a disability that requires assistance to vote, the voter may bring a person of their choice to help them vote. The person providing assistance may not be a candidate for office or the voter’s union representative or employer. A voter may ask a member of the election board to assist them with voting. A voter may designate a family member, household member, or caregiver to assist them in returning an early or mail-in ballot.

Fair Elections Center and Campus Vote Project intend the information contained herein to be used only as a general guide. This document should not be used as a substitute for consultation with a licensed Arizona legal professional. Updated August 2024. Contact Fair Elections Center at
info@fairelectionscenter.org

If you have questions or are experiencing problems voting, call the Election Protection Hotline and speak with a volunteer to get help.

Young Invincibles

Q&A: Your Rights at The Polling Place

Business Communications:

Donations (checks made out to 'Fair Elections Center'):

Phone:

Email:

Stay up to date!