A generation ago, voter registration on college campuses usually looked something like this: a folding table in the corner of a quad somewhere, a handmade sign or two, a stack of registration sheets from the local voting precinct and perhaps a few student volunteers trying to draw the notice of others rushing to class.
No more. On hundreds of campuses across the country, voting registration and voting itself is increasingly sophisticated, integrated into every facet of campus life.
Signing up for classes? Register to vote. Picking up your dining hall pass? Register to vote. Getting your campus ID or parking pass? Register to vote!
There are apps to help students learn where and how to vote. There are administrators whose job descriptions include easing obstacles to student registration and voting. There are sophisticated databases to track student involvement with the political process and squadrons of student volunteers who knock on dorm room doors.
The changes didn’t happen by accident.
The landscape began to change in the lead-up to the presidential election of 2016. And leading the charge was an organization founded by students and former students, Students Learn Students Vote Coalition (SLSV).
Through a combination of funding savvy, strategy and enthusiasm, the coalition has helped more than 800 higher education institutions harness the power of the 1998 Higher Education Act to turn their campuses into hubs for student voter registration and engagement.
The SLSV is the recipient of a two-year, $400,000 grant from the Southern Poverty Law Center to help it ramp up voter engagement efforts before the 2024 elections and sustain the work through 2025.
The coalition is among 68 organizations working in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi that have been selected to receive grants this year through Vote Your Voice, an SPLC initiative conducted in partnership with the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta.
“Voting is foundational to our…
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