AMERICA'S BEST COLLEGES FOR STUDENT VOTING: The schools doing the most to turn students into citizens.

• Date: 01 September 2020
• Author: Block, Daniel

On November 3, Americans will vote in an election unlike any other in U.S. history. As COVID-19 rages across the country, many will find themselves voting by mail for the first time. Others will wait in long lines at the fewer polling places that are open because their state government has made voting by mail difficult or impossible. If localities are imprudent about in-person voting--by having people line up indoors, for example--some will doubtlessly get sick as a result, leading to a terrible trade-off between political participation and physical health.

For even the most seasoned voters, this will likely be a fraught and challenging process. But for America's college students, it will be especially perplexing. Young people are, by definition, the age group least experienced with the act of voting. Not coincidentally, they are also the ones least likely to cast ballots. In 2018--a hard-fought, high-water mark for youth midterm voting--turnout among 18- to 29-year-olds was still only 35 percent, more than 10 points below the rate for 30- to 44-year-olds, 20 points below the rate for 45- to 64-year-olds, and less than half the rate of the over-65 crowd. Among college students, the rate was 40 percent--not much better.

The good news is that despite the pandemic, young people are unusually fired up about the 2020 contest. A recent poll by Harvard's Institute of Politics shows that more 18- to 29-year-olds say they plan to vote in 2020 than said they planned to vote when asked in surveys conducted at similar times in 2016 and 2018. It's clear that recent events, such as the mass activism against police brutality and institutionalized racism, have inspired many young people's passions. According to a poll by Tufts University's Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, 27 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds have attended a march or a demonstration in their lifetimes, a more than fivefold increase from 2016. A quarter of all 18- to 24-year-olds say they have registered someone else to vote, far more than in the past. And while many people are worried that young Americans will be less likely to vote by mail than their elders, preliminary evidence suggests that's not the case. Compared to 2016, the number of 18- to 24-year-olds who voted by mail in Florida's 2020 presidential primary increased by 338 percent. For all other age groups, the increase was just 11 percent.

The bad news is that many young Americans are still unsure about how to vote. In the same Tufts survey, just 51 percent of respondents correctly knew whether they could register online. Seven-and-a-half percent, which translates to 3.5 million people, said they have poor access to the internet, which inhibits their ability to both register and learn about the voting process. And it is unclear if colleges will be able to keep large numbers of students on campus until November 3, meaning that even the most well-informed students may wind up registering in places they ultimately can't cast ballots.

At the Monthly, we believe that colleges have a special obligation to help young Americans become active political citizens. It will help if they make sure students can be confident about where they will be on Election Day. But to ensure that young people capitalize on their growing enthusiasm, schools will need to do much more. They'll need to explain how to register and what's needed to actually cast a ballot, given both the pandemic-related election...