{"id":142907,"date":"2021-11-18T16:18:25","date_gmt":"2021-11-18T21:18:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=142907"},"modified":"2021-11-22T13:19:53","modified_gmt":"2021-11-22T18:19:53","slug":"bates-gains-national-recognition-for-student-voting-turnout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2021\/11\/18\/bates-gains-national-recognition-for-student-voting-turnout\/","title":{"rendered":"Bates gains national recognition for student voting turnout"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Bates was recently honored as one of 48 colleges with the highest student voting rate<\/a> in the 2020 presidential election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With 84.9 percent of eligible students heading to the polls in 2020, Bates garnered a platinum seal from the ALL In Campus Democracy Challenge, a nonpartisan national awards program that recognizes colleges and universities for their commitment to increasing student voting and civic engagement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Forty-eight colleges earned the platinum designation for achieving voting rates over 80 percent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe cultivation of \u2018informed civic action\u2019 is a pillar of our institutional mission<\/a>,\u201d said Darby Ray, director of the Harward Center for Community Partnerships, which oversees the nonpartisan voter mobilization effort, known as Bates Votes. \u201cVoting, including voter education, registration, and mobilization, is a crucial form of civic action and the very foundation of a thriving democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2020 edition of Bates Votes was coordinated by students Amalia Herren-Lage \u201922 of Shoreham, Vt., and Ashka Jhaveri \u201922 of Chappaqua, N.Y., with expert advice and guidance from Peggy Rotundo, who retired in 2021 as the Harward Center\u2019s director of strategic and policy initiatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"From
The 2020 edition of Bates Votes was coordinated by Amalia Herren-Lage \u201922 (left) of Shoreham, Vt., and Ashka Jhaveri \u201922 of Chappaqua, N.Y., photographed Nov. 17, 2021, in front of a chalked voting message on a Ladd Library wall. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Rotundo was the ideal role model and mentor, said Herren-Lage and Jhaveri. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHer confidence, experience, and incredibly kind guidance created a beautiful working environment for us to experiment with ideas and execute our goals in a professional and enthusiastic manner,\u201d said Herren Lage. \u201cThat\u2019s something I hope to bring into all my future endeavors.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bates Votes is a grass-roots effort that leverages peer-to-peer engagement and the willingness of many campus partners among students, faculty, and staff. \u201cIt\u2019s an all-college effort \u2014 all hands on deck,\u201d says Ray.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vote Captains, students who are trained by Harward Center staff on how to register and educate voters, engage students in a massive outreach campaign through clubs, organizations, athletic teams, residence halls, classes, and friends groups. Plus chalking \u2014 lots of chalking \u2014 all around campus, exhorting folks to vote. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Herren-Lage and Jhaveri, who are close friends, the experience with Bates Votes offers a model for purposeful work \u2014 “a professional, enthusiastic partnership,\u201d said Herren Lage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2020 as with other elections, Bates Votes and the Harward Center supported a range of voter-education programs, dubbed the Election Connection. Bates faculty members added their expertise and insights, including two roundtables that shared scholarly insights<\/a> into election results, as well as the video series Democracy QuickBites, featuring insights from Bates people and invited guests, including U.S. Sen. Angus King of Maine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
Bates Votes efforts include lots of peer-to-peer outreach \u2014 and lots of chalking, including this call to register on one of Ladd Library\u2019s brick walls in September 2020. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Some 844 two- and four-year U.S. institutions of higher education and more than 9.2 million students are now part of the ALL IN Campus Challenge program, which gathers its voting data from the National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement of the Institute for Democracy & Higher Education<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are a few 2020 student voting facts from Bates and nationally:<\/p>\n\n\n\n