Engage the Election 2012: A Webinar Series

The American Democracy Project’s partner organization, The Democracy Commitment (TDC) is sponsoring a set of three free webinars in August focused on the 2012 election cycle. I encourage you to participate to learn more about the work of six leading organizations in the voter registration and education community. The webinars will provide resources and ideas for campus programming.

Thank you TDC for including us!

– Jen Domagal-Goldman, ADP National Manager

ENGAGE THE ELECTION: 2012

Webinar Series

Hosted by The Democracy Commitment, the Engage the Election: 2012 webinar series is an opportunity for college and university campuses to learn more about the programs and resources available to them through national organizations including CIRCLE, the League of Women Voters, the Campus Vote Project, and Student PIRGs. The webinars will presente offerings intended to help ADP & TDC campuses in their efforts to reach out and better engage both students on campus and members of the community in the upcoming national election.

We’re very excited for the opportunity to share the work happening with our national partners and how their resources can help you engage your students in the upcoming national election. We have a great lineup the first three Mondays in August.

To download a schedule with webinar summaries, click here. To register for the webinar series, click here. The password to register is: TDCEngage2012

The following are dates for the webinar series and the presenting partner organizations with a summary of their 30-minute webinar.

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Monday, August 6, 2012 @ 3:00pm-4:00pm EDT

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Fantasy Politics

The webinar will begin with a brief demo of Fantasy Politics, a free and addictive educational game that applies fantasy football dynamics to politics. Then we will go over how this fits into a civics/social studies/government curriculum as well as discuss best practices for driving student engagement well beyond what would be possible with a textbook. Finally, we’ll finish the session with Q&A.

Presenter: Aaron Michel, CEO

Use Your Vote. Raise Our Voice.

The Student PIRGs’ New Voters Project is a non-partisan student mobilization campaign. Since 1984 we’ve helped to register more than 1.7million people. This webinar will talk through our best practices for ensuring your campus registers and turns out on Election Day. For more information on our campaign check out  http://www.StudentVote.org

Presenter: Leigh-Anne Cole, New Voters Project Director

 

Monday, August 13, 2012 @ 3:00pm-4:00pm EDT

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League of Women Voters

The League of Women Voters, a leader in engaging and empowering voters for more than 90 years, is active in 800 communities nationwide and ready to work with community college campuses this fall! From helping out with voter registration drives to providing quality nonpartisan information about candidates and the basics you need to know to help your friends get ready for Election Day, the League stands ready to work together. The webinar will be about the League’s work and ways you can join forces with a local League in your area.

Presenter: Maggie Duncan, Elections Program Manager

Campus Vote Project (CVP)

CVP is a campaign of the Fair Elections Legal Network to help colleges break down barriers to voting that disproportionately affect students. This webinar will summarize specific reforms from the CVP toolkit that a school can implement to get college students the information they need to register and vote. It will also cover important election rules and will describe the state-specific resources CVP can provide to support election awareness, voter registration, and GOTV efforts.

Presenter: Dan Vicuna, Staff Attorney and Campus Vote Project Coordinator

 

Monday, August 20, 2012 @ 3:00pm-4:00pm EDT

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Turbo Vote

TurboVote is a service that makes registering to vote, voting by mail, and never missing an election as easy as renting a netflix DVD.  Over 20 colleges across the country have partnered with TurboVote to provide the service on their campuses.  In this webinar, TurboVote Director of Partnerships Sam Novey will discuss exactly how TurboVote works for both users and institutional partners.

Presenter: Seth Flaxman, Executive Director and Co-founder

CIRCLE

TurboVote is a service that makes registering to vote, voting by mail, and never missing an election as easy as renting a netflix DVD.  Over 20 colleges across the country have partnered with TurboVote to provide the service on their campuses.  In this webinar, TurboVote Director of Partnerships Sam Novey will discuss exactly how TurboVote works for both users and institutional partners.

Presenter: Nancy Thomas, Director, Initiatives for the Study of Higher Education and Public Life

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To download a schedule with webinar summaries, click here. To register for the webinar series, click here. The password to register is: TDCEngage2012

For more information about Engage the Election: 2012 you can visit TDC’s website under “Initiatives.” You can also engage amongst your colleagues and students on the Engage the Election: 2012 Facebook page.

Please feel free to share this information with anyone on your college campus that you believe would benefit from the information and resources of this series.

ADP’s Electoral Voices monograph available for free Download as PDF

In 2006, AASCU’s American Democracy Project published Electoral Voices – Engaging College Students in Elections, a best practices guide. Until recently, this monograph has been for sale in the AASCU online bookstore. Now, in time for planning for the 2012 national election, we’re re-releasing the guide as a free, downloadable PDF.

At the time of publication, George Mehaffy wrote in the Foreword, “As we approach yet another series of national and state elections, we hope this monograph will assist our colleagues in higher education, both within the American Democracy Project, and beyond. We wanted to capture the best insights, perspectives, and examples that we could find and share then with others for use in the upcoming and future election cycles.” Mehaffy’s words still ring true today; ADP’s electoral voices efforts continue as part of our Political Engagement Project, as well as through campus-specific programs and our affiliation with the Campus Vote Project. These efforts may be even more important now given the number of states with new Voter ID laws that may disproportionally effect college students.

This volume focuses on voter education, voter registration, and voter participation, as well as on how best to assess these efforts.

Below you’ll find the Table of Contents for the monograph. We hope you’ll read and share this work as we all work together to ensure that our students are prepared to be informed, engaged citizens – not only in the public sphere, but also at the polls.

Electoral Voices: Engaging College Students in Elections                          (Edited by Jim Perry)

• Foreword, George Mehaffy (Vice President, Academic Leadership and Change, AASCU)
• Introduction, Jim Perry (Campus ADP Director, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis)
• Voter Registration, Harry Basehart (Co-Director, PACE Institute, Salisbury University) and Jim Perry
• Voter Education, Richard Kendrick (ADP Campus Coordinator, SUNY Cortland) and Jim Perry
• Voter Participation, Matthew Manweller (Assistant Professor of Political Science) and Jim Perry
• Assessing Electoral Engagement, Elizabeth Bennion (ADP Campus Director, Indiana University South Bend)
• Challenges, Pitfalls and Lessons, Jim Perry
• References
• Appendix I: Campus Case Studies
• Appendix II: Case Study Template
• Appendix III: AASCU Survey of Member Institutions
• Appendix IV: Organizations Increasing Youth’s Electoral Voice
• Acknowledgements, Jim Perry

Download the Electoral Voices (2006) monograph here.

Partner Spotlight: Student Voting Update from FELN’s Campus Vote Project

Student Voting Update for March 12, 2012

Posted by Josh Spaulding

The Fair Elections Legal Network’s Campus Vote Project is excited to launch its new weekly update that focuses on news across the country related to students’ ability to vote. Young people are constantly underrepresented when it comes to voting. While many attribute the low turnout to apathy, specific barriers to the ballot disproportionately affect young people generally and students specifically.

Students, in particular, face additional obstacles to voting as they move to a new community for school. These challenges include not knowing voter registration rules and deadlines, not having acceptable ID for voter registration or voting purposes, confusion about where to vote, lack of transportation to the polls, and occasionally are confronted by unfriendly or unsympathetic elections officials or poll workers.

There are several ways for students, administrators, and election officials to help get students the information they need to register and vote. This weekly update will highlight what is being done on campuses and in the states to get students the information to participate and make voting more accessible as well as legislation that is specifically targeted to limit students’ access to the ballot. These are just a few examples from the past month. Please let us know of any recent on campuses or in the states that will impact students’ access to the ballot. Send your email to info@campusvoteproject.org.

To view non-student specific legislation that will impact access to voting, please visit FELN biweekly update on voter suppression legislation.

If you are interested in joining the new campaign FELN launched, Campus Vote Project, to help get students to the polls, please sign up at www.campusvoteproject.org.

Georgia

In the recent Presidential primary in Georgia, turnout among young voters was only 5%. A local TV station asked students at Albany State University why they didn’t vote. The students responded that they were unaware of the primary election date or that they were registered in their hometown.

Indiana

Students at Ball State University made their case before the Delaware County Election Board for an early satellite voting site on the Ball State campus. Currently, the campus is split into four different precincts with most of the polling locations over a mile from campus. Ball State President Joann Gora was supportive of the idea in 2008, the last time students tried to get a satellite voting site on campus.

Florida

The University of Miami, Miami-Dade Community College, and Florida International University have partnered with Turbovote, an online tool to help students vote. In the next few months, students will be able to start the voter registration process as well as apply for an absentee ballot through Turbovote. Students will be mailed ballots and will receive email and text message remainders as the election nears to either vote the absentee ballot or show up to vote in person on Election Day. FELN provides strategic advice and legal analysis for Turbovote.

Maryland

Although the Maryland General Assembly will not consider new legislation this year, the Student Government Association at the University of Maryland voted 20-0 to call on the legislature to introduce and pass same-day registration in a future legislative session. They noted that states with same-day registration saw an increase in student voters, including an analysis by the California Institute of Technology showing that same-day registration increased turnout of young adults (18-25 year olds) by 9.1 percent.

Minnesota

As lawmakers try to move through a bill in the Minnesota legislature that will put on the November ballot a constitutional amendment requiring a photo ID to vote, the League of Women Voters Minnesota produced a video showing how the law will effect voters – especially students. Among them is a graduate student who has, like many other students, moved 12 times in the past 6 years for internships, work, and when the school year ends. The proposed amendment will add a new barrier to voting for students in a state that has traditionally seen higher levels of student voting because of Election Day registration.

New Hampshire

The House passed legislation two weeks ago that would require a person’s voting address be their residence for all other legal purposes, impacting hundreds of laws and statutes that contain the words residency and domicile. For instance, a person would be required to change their drivers’ license and vehicle registration if it did not match the address they use for voter registration. The bill will likely prevent out of state college students from voting in New Hampshire unless they change their legal residence from their home state to New Hampshire. The bill heads to the Senate.

North Carolina

The upcoming vote on a constitutional amendment to ban same sex marriage in North Carolina has activated students on the Duke University campus to make voting more convenient for students ahead of the spring election. The Duke Student Government got a one-stop early voting site on campus – allowing students to both register and cast a ballot at the same time.

Ohio

Warren G. Harding High School took a group of students who will be 18 by the November general election to vote in Ohio’s primary election on Wednesday. Dozens more students from Warren City Schools are expected also be bused to vote in the primary.

Pennsylvania

The Pennsylvania Senate passed a voter photo ID law that allows for student IDs from a Pennsylvania college or university to be acceptable ID if the student ID contains a photo, the student’s name, and an expiration date proving that it is still valid. The bill moves back to the House for agreement and then to Governor Tom Corbett to sign. Governor Corbett has said he is in favor of requiring photo IDs to vote.

Texas

The Black Student Alliance at San Antonio College in Texas recently conducted a voter registration drive to educate students on the importance of voting. They were able to register 90 students and plan to hold two more voter registration drives before the November election.

Vermont

Vermont voters passed a constitutional amendment in 2010 that now allows 17 year olds that will be 18 by the general election to vote in the upcoming presidential and August primary.

Virginia

SB 1 passed the Senate on February 6 with a 20-20 vote with the lieutenant governor casting the tie-breaking vote. SB 1 allows an ID card from any 4 year school of higher education in Virginia – including private schools – to serve as voting ID. Those who cannot provide an ID will no longer be able to sign a sworn statement of identity to vote by regular ballot and will instead have to vote by provisional ballot and show required ID later. The House concurred and the bill has been sent to Governor Bob McDonnell.

For the primary this past week, Liberty University was able to get a polling location on campus for students to vote. Previously, students had to take a bus to the polling location. Close to 600 people voted on at the polling place on campus.

Wisconsin

Wisconsin’s photo ID law was temporarily suspended pending trial over a lawsuit over the new law. Last’s month primary election required photo ID – which also allowed student ID’s – but as of now are not required to show a photo ID in the upcoming primary election because of the injunction. The new law that has been suspended only allows student IDs to serve as IDs if they have a photo, name, signature, date of issuance, and a 2-year expiration date. Students also must bring a letter from their school indicating that they are currently enrolled to be able to use a student ID. One student writes about the complications she encountered trying to vote under the new law, including printing the enrollment verification form.

The Madison Student Voter Coalition and the University of Wisconsin – Madison conducted a voter education awareness campaign prior to Tuesday’s primary.

The Wisconsin Senate passed a bill that would no longer require that voter registration to be offered to students in high school. It now heads to the Wisconsin Assembly.

The University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire is issuing voter IDs to students that do not have acceptable forms of identification to vote but are charging students $2 to obtain one. The Chippewa Valley Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union sent a letter to the school urging them to provide the IDs for free.

Whether or not technical school IDs are acceptable forms of identification is now in the hands of Gov. Scott Walker. He must approve the official policy written and approved by the Government Accountability Board that allows IDs issued by technical schools for voting.

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Re-posted with permission from The Campus Vote Project Blog.