Some students try to vote and can't. What's getting in their way?
Student voting rates have increased dramatically but many students still don't vote. In our study, more than half of students who didn't vote reported attempting to do so. What got in their way?
This post is the fourth in a State of the Student Vote series about the research results from the projects supported by the first round of Student Vote Research Network subgrants. Click these links to read prior posts on the Self Esteem and Student Voting, the Civic Strengths of Commuter Students, and How Cross Partisan Dialogue Can Enable 100% Student Voting.
Student Voting at Saint Louis University is WAY up (but over 25% still don’t vote - even in presidential elections)!
After the 1993 Voter Registration Act identified college students as an underrepresented group in elections, Saint Louis University (SLU) developed a robust voter engagement program. SLU developed a Campus Action Plan and partners with the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge, National Voter Registration Day, and the Voter Friendly Campus designation process. The University increased voting rates in recent Presidential Election years as well as Congressional Midterm Elections.
Our study surveyed students to understand the barriers that continue to keep so many from voting.
We designed an online survey to better understand the barriers that college and university students face in voting. Survey questions focused on voter registration, voter turnout, barriers, policy issues, how information is shared, and whether students saw voting information on their campus.
Our project involved coordinating on-campus voter registration drives, voter education presentations, an on-campus polling place, and Get-out-the-Vote activities. In addition, we infused voter education into social work program curricula and field work requirements. Courses offered extra credit for students who helped their schoolmates register to vote. We partnered with student organizations, academic programs, community organizations, and two local colleges and universities: Harris-Stowe State University, which is a historically Black public university, and St. Louis Community College-Forest Park, which has a 36% racial minority population (including 24% African American, 3% Latinx, and 2% Asian). The online survey was administered to students attending the three universities.
Over half of non-voters in our survey report attempting to vote.
582 students completed our survey. Nearly 90% reported being registered to vote and 87% reported voting in the midterm elections. This sample was highly engaged compared to the general population with a self-reported voting rate nearly 40% higher than the midterm voting rate at SLU.
We did, however, observe several major areas of concern in the data we got from the 13% of students in the sample who did not vote. Over half of them - 55% - reported attempting to vote but not being able to. When asked what kept them from voting, 61% reported not receiving an Absentee/Mail-in ballot on time. Many of these voters who did not receive a ballot in time could not have made to their in-person polling place. 41% of students surveyed reported not having transportation to their polling site.
What does this mean for student voting efforts on our campus and around the country?
Our data confirms reports from the field that there is a significant population of students who are trying to vote but are blocked from doing so by logistical barriers like accessing clear information about how to register and request a mail-in ballot, getting transportation to a polling place, and receiving mail-in ballots on time.
Going forward, we will use these findings to inform our student voting efforts at SLU. We will partner with faculty and use social media to increase student knowledge of mail-in voting and absentee laws in the states where they are trying to vote. We will increase support around transportation on Election Day, including sharing information about polling place location, sharing information about how to get free rides, and renting university vans and recruiting drivers to support access to off-campus polling locations. These recommendations are likely applicable to many campuses, not just SLU.
We are also in the process of conducting focus group discussions to better understand barriers to registering to vote and casting ballots. We hope these conversations will illuminate how these barriers are experienced by students and what strategies are most effective in supporting students in overcoming the barriers.
Sabrina Tyuse is an Associate Professor of Social Work at the Saint Louis Univetsity School of Social Work.