Pennsylvania Campus Voting Challenge

About the Challenge

The Pennsylvania Campus Voting Challenge is a nonpartisan support and recognition program for higher education institutions in Pennsylvania with a commitment to increasing student voter participation and engagement on campuses across the Commonwealth.

There will be three award categories for both 4-year institutions and 2-year institutions, awarded based on student voter participation in the November 2022 election using data from NSLVE. The Department of State will announce awards for highest campus voter turnout, most improved campus voter turnout, and highest student voter registration rate.

The Pennsylvania Department of State is facilitating this voting challenge in collaboration with the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge, a national nonpartisan nonprofit that provides support, structure, and recognition to help colleges and universities to institutionalize nonpartisan democratic engagement and increase student voting. Awards will be based on campuses' National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement (NSLVE) reports generated by the Institute for Democracy & Higher Education at Tufts University in Mass. Participation in the Pennsylvania Challenge will automatically include participation in ALL IN Challenge, a national support and recognition program.

Institutions that opt into the Challenge will be provided guidance and tools to create an action plan for increasing student engagement on their campus. There is no sign-up cost to participate.

If you have questions you can email Ryan Drysdale, director of ALL IN, (ryan@civicnation.org).

See a list of all participating campuses here

Learn more about ALL IN here

How do I get involved?

School Administrators
complete the online form.

Students
email ryan@civicnation.org.

Winners:

2020 Pennsylvania Campus Voting Challenge Award Winners

Highest Voter Registration Award, 2-year Institution: Montgomery County Community College
Highest Voter Registration Award, 4-year Institution: Dickinson College
Most Improved Voter Turnout Award, 2-year Institution: Butler County Community College
Most Improved Voter Turnout Award, 4-year Institution: Susquehanna University
Highest Voter Turnout Award, 2-year Institution: Montgomery County Community College
Highest Voter Turnout Award, 4-year Institution: Dickinson College
Best Campus Democratic Engagement Action Plan Award, 2-year Institution: Northampton
Community College & Community College of Philadelphia (tied)
Best Campus Democratic Engagement Action Plan Award, 4-year Institution: Clarion
University of Pennsylvania & University of Pennsylvania (tied)

Actions:

Develop a campus democratic engagement action plan.
Submit your action plan to ALL IN via email to actionplans@civicnation.org.
Authorize the National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement (NSLVE) housed at the Institute for Democracy & Higher Education at Tufts University to receive free campus voting reports every two years.
Encourage your campus president or chancellor to sign the Higher Education Presidents' Commitment to Full Student Voter Participation
Since 2020, more than 430 college and university presidents have signed the Commitment to Full Student Voter Participation. By signing on to the Higher Education Presidents' Commitment to Full Student Voter Participation, college and university presidents are making a public statement of their commitment. As leaders, it is important for higher education presidents to express the value of an inclusive and vibrant democracy.

Resources:

Pennsylvania Student Voting Coalition (PA-SVC): a coalition of students, faculty, and staff who meet monthly to share ideas and resources.
Local Election Official Campus Engagement Report
Coaches Voter Engagement Pledge & Resources (this will relaunch in March 2022)
ALL IN Resource Toolkit
Action Planning Resources

Developing a democratic engagement action plan is a key step of participating in ALL IN and institutionalizing nonpartisan democratic engagement on your campus. Each election cycle, ALL IN provides three action plan submission opportunities including two chances for campuses to receive feedback on their action plan. Check out these action planning resources:

Strengthening American Democracy Guide which outlines the sections and content to include in a nonpartisan democratic engagement action plan.
Strengthening American Democracy Rubric which allows a campus to self-assess the strength of their nonpartisan democratic engagement action plan and is used by ALL IN to confidentially score a plan.
Example Action Plans which will provide examples of strong action plans.
Votes & Ballots Action Planning Form which is a fillable form to easily create an action plan to submit to ALL IN.
Sign up to review action plans to learn ideas from other campuses and support the process to provide campuses with feedback.

Civic Holidays

Civic Holidays are nonpartisan days of action that strengthen and celebrate our country's democracy. They bring together a wide range of organizations - like the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge - and communities in pursuit of an America where everyone participates and votes. For more information about Civic Holidays visit: https://civicholidays.org/.