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Best in Class: Student Voting Rate Grows From 43% to 75.7%

  • by Dave Jones
News
Two women, backs to camera, in voting booths
Voting in the Memorial Union in the California primary election, 2020. (Karin Higgins/ÍêÃÀÌåÓý)

Quick Summary

  • Most improved voting rate among public universities
  • Honored by the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge
  • ÍêÃÀÌåÓý also earns a gold seal for student voter engagement

Updated Nov. 10 to add ÍêÃÀÌåÓý’ second most-improved award, presented earlier today, this one in the athletics portion of the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge.

From 43% in the 2016 general election, ÍêÃÀÌåÓý’ student voting rate grew by nearly 33 percentage points four years later — a gain that earned the Aggies a Best of Class Campus Award in the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge.

The award from the national, nonpartisan initiative recognizes the Aggies’ 75.7% turnout at the polls in the 2020 general election as the most improved among the student voting rates of nearly 300 four-year public colleges and universities. ÍêÃÀÌåÓý also earned a most-improved award in an ALL IN athletics challenge in which the Aggies bested 10 of their Big Sky Conference opponents in voter turnout.