ADP/TDC Engage the Election July 2016 Newsletter

ADP/TDC Engage the Election Initiative Nonpartisan College Voting News and Resources July 2016 Edition   ACTION ITEMS Register Now | ADP/TDC ENGAGE THE ELECTION 2016 WEBINARS Thurs. July 28th Walk 2 Vote Webinar: #Walk2Vote is a student led, student executed, non-partisan political engagement program. Co-founder and past University of Houston-Downtown student body president John Locke will discuss how to organize one on your campus. RSVP here! Weds. August 24th Voter Registration & Campus Technology Webinar: TurboVote and their partner campuses will present research on how to substantially increase student voter registration through technology. RSVP here! Sign up by August 1st | NSLVE: The National Study of Learning, Voting and Engagement Is your campus participating in NSLVE? Find out here. And, if you aren’t, learn more about why you should and how it works here. Is Your Campus ALL IN? Participate in the ALL IN: Campus Democracy Challenge The ALL IN: Campus Democracy Challenge is dedicated recognizing postsecondary campuses committed to preparing graduates for their public lives as citizens, members of the communities, and professionals in society, as it has historically been a responsibility of the higher education. Becoming ALL IN gives you access to resources to improve and share your success. WHAT WE’RE READING Graduating Students into Voters Check out idea42’s 2016 publication Graduating Students into Voters. Ideas42 breaks down psychological barriers faced by student voters into eight categories and discusses nine different strategies to overcome these barriers. Voter’s Self Defense Manual Born from an idea promoted by over 40 national leaders of both parties including two former presidents (Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford), Vote Smart now uses hundreds of students, volunteers and staff from every state to collect facts on every candidate and elected official in six areas. State-by-State Student Voting Guides One of the biggest barriers for students to register and vote is a lack of understanding of registration deadlines and requirements. The Campus Vote Project has put together a resource tool to help students understand these deadlines and requirements on a state-by-state level. VOTER REGISTRATION & EDUCATION RESOURCES Campus support for student voter engagement:  CVP & NASPA’s Voter Friendly Campus designation Check if I’m registered:  Can I Vote.org  Deadlines, locations, materials:  Campus Vote Project  Registration assistance (military/overseas voting):  Federal Voting Assistance Program Registration and reminders:  TurboVote Register online/absentee:  Your Vote Your Voice Sample ballots:  The League of Women Voters Voter Education and Research:  CIRCLE’s 2016 Election Center IMPORTANT DATES Thurs. July 28: #Walk2Vote Webinar Wed. August 24: TurboVote Webinar Fri. September 16: Constitution Day Tues. September 27: National Voter Registration Day Tues. November 8: Election Day Fri. January 20: Inauguration day

Pew’s Voting Information Project: Delivering Non-Partisan Voting Information in 2016

What’s the first thing you do when you realize there’s an election coming?  If you’re like most people, you probably open a search engine and search “where’s my polling place?” or “what’s on my ballot?”  To make sure you can find this information and trust what you find, The Pew Charitable Trusts partnered with election officials and Google in 2008 to create the Voting Information Project (VIP) to give voters access to the information they need to cast a ballot on or before Election Day.

VIP has already provided election information for 44 elections, including 29 presidential preference primaries, and helped more than 3.4 million people find their polling place and ballot information via Facebook, presidential campaigns on both sides of the aisle, media websites, third party groups, and more, including our own website!  VIP provides free tools that anyone can use or promote to help their constituents find accurate, official voting information without requiring any personally identifiable information.  In addition, all of VIP’s information is published via the Google Civic Information API, which is open source and free for anyone to use

• The Voting Information Tool is mobile-friendly, customizable tool that can be placed on your website. It provides official voting information, including polling locations, to anyone using just a residential address and is available in 16 languages.  You can try  the customizer to see how easy it is to use and to design the tool exactly how you want it to look, or the tool itself is open source and can be customized even further.
• White-label iOS and Android mobile apps that can be customized, branded, and released by state and local governments. The apps are available in Spanish and English, and are both open source (iOS and Android).
• A short messaging service (SMS) tool provides voters with election information via text message in 10 languages. By texting “VOTE” or “VOTO” to GOVOTE (468-683), voters can find their polling place or dropbox location, contact information for a local election official, and a link to check voter registration status.  Although it isn’t customizable, anyone is welcome to promote it.
• GettothePolls.com is a joint effort of Pew and the Internet Association.  The site allows voters to enter their addresses and find the location and hours of their polling place and ballot and candidate information.  Anyone can promote or link to this website.

If you or your organization has questions about VIP, please contact info@votinginfoproject.org and follow VIP on Twitter!

Engage the Election 2016: NVRD is Sept. 27th & State Guides

Beginning to make plans for registering students to vote in the November 2016 elections?

Become an National Voter Registration Day Partner

National Voter Registration Day (NVRD) is a nonpartisan, 50-state holiday when thousands of organizations and volunteers work together to register voters. As a partner, ADP is encouraging our campuses to sign up as partners for NVRD. By signing up now, you can receive stickers, posters and a toolkit to help your school or organization be an active participant on Tuesday, September 27^th. Note: Sign up by July 1st!

CVP’s 2016 Student Guides Are Now Available

Every year our partners at FELN’s Campus Vote Project (CVP) update materials that administrators, faculty and students can use to clarify the deadlines, rules, and frequently asked questions about registering and voting in their state. Their student voting guides for all 50 states and DC for 2016 are updated and available on their website. Visit the CVP website for student voting guides and other useful materials you can use leading up to election day on Tuesday, November 8.

 

ADP/TDC Electoral Engagement Resources: Engaging Campuses

As a part of the ADP/TDC Electoral Engagement Resources, we’ve created a document with ways in which colleges and universities can engage their students.

The document has resources to measure current areas of growth for individual universities’ democratic engagement efforts. It also lists suggested resources on how to approach expanding democratic engagement efforts on campuses as well as organizations and projects that can assist in the process.

ADP and TDC campuses are encouraged to utilize these resources to engage students in upcoming elections.

Download Engaging Campuses (pdf)
Don’t forget: National Voter Registration Day is September 22^nd!

ADP/TDC Electoral Engagement Resources: Voter Education Websites

The ADP/TDC Electoral Engagement Resources now features a document on voter education websites to help college students better inform themselves in preparation for Election Day.

Listed websites will assist students in finding factual information about the candidates on the ballot. Other websites feature voting information. One source students may find to be particularly useful is the candidate matching quiz. This website asks users to take a quiz about their beliefs and then matches the responses to the best fit candidate of the 2016 presidential election.

ADP and TDC institutions are encouraged to promote these educational resources on their campuses.

Download Voter Education Websites (pdf)
Don’t forget: National Voter Registration Day is September 22^nd!