Marist Students Shatter Previous Voter Turnout Rate in the 2020 Presidential Election
Marist Votes Set Up in the Student Center Prior to the 2020 Presidential Election. Courtesy of Marist College
Student voting on campus increased significantly in last year's presidential election according to a new report released by The Institute for Democracy and Higher Education.
According to the report, 69.6% of Marist students voted in the 2020 presidential election compared to a rate of 41.1% in the 2016 presidential election. The Marist student voting rate was above the college national average of 64% in 2020.
“The significant increase in the rate of student voting on campus is directly related to the consistent effort made by student leaders over the past few years,” Dr. Melissa Gaeke, Director for the Marist College Center for Civic Engagement and Leadership said. “We know from talking with many of our students that they cared deeply about issues and wanted to make sure their voices were heard.”
Over the past decade, voter turnout among young college-aged people has significantly increased. According to data from the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, in 2014, less than 20 percent of 18-to 29-year olds voted in the presidential election, marking a 40-year low.
“I registered to vote the day I turned eighteen and have voted in every election since,” Sean Hammond ‘22 said. “I firmly believe that the only true way to change the direction of the country is to vote. Back in high school, our history teachers would tell us, ‘“if we don't vote then we have no reason to complain about the way things are going.”’
The voting turnout for Marist students increased 28.5 points since the 2016 presidential election. In 2020, there were 5,945 students on campus who were eligible to vote, 5,097 students who registered to vote and 4,139 students who actually voted. The voting rate of registered students jumped from 57% in 2016 to 81% in the 2020 presidential election.
“I think the circumstances that 2020 brought forced Marist students out of their apathy,” Julia Meyer ‘23 said. “Since so many of the issues that came out of 2020 heavily impacted so many people, I think this forced Marist students to wake up and start paying attention. Marist students started becoming adults during one of the most politically trying times of our country and as a result, could see what was truly at stake in this election.”
Meyer has always been politically involved and currently serves as the president of the Marist Democrats. Growing up, her father would always watch the news and discuss what was happening in politics. In 2019, Meyer got her first chance to vote and her mother was on the ballot for the Board of Education in her hometown of Shelton, Connecticut.
“I truly believe in the power of my own generation to make revolutionary political change in this country,” Meyer said. “Young people my own age have already been the catalyst for so much change already and I think we can only go up from here.”
On campuses across the country, students voted at increased rates in the 2020 election, with voter turnout jumping to 66% in last year’s presidential election. The 14 percentage point increase outpaces that of all Americans, which jumped 6 percentage points from 61% to 67%, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Since 2016, the Marist Center for Civic Engagement and Leadership has supported a student-led initiative called Marist Votes. Marist Votes was created by Julia McCarthy ‘18 and works to increase access to information and strengthen election and voting resources across campus. Over the past five years, the sustained efforts by Marist Votes have increased student electoral participation on campus.
“The youth vote continues to grow as a major electorate with Election-deciding power,” McCarthy said. “I’m thrilled to see the significant impact stemming from years of student-led campus organizing and voter engagement, education and turnout efforts.”
Victoria Howard ‘20 was a student leader for Marist Votes in the lead up to the 2020 presidential election and witnessed first-hand the progress toward greater civic engagement on campus. Many days out of the week, Howard could be seen sitting in the student center helping students register to vote or collecting their ballots to drop off at the post office.
“One of my proudest achievements at Marist was getting involved in Marist Votes, especially during such a polarizing and pivotal election year,” Howard said. “Mobilizing my peers and transforming the landscape of Marist's civic engagement was a project I was eager to take on.”
Although the method of voting was unknown for 51% of the Marist college population, The Institute for Democracy and Higher Education documented that 42% of Marist students in 2020 did not vote in person. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 election saw high rates of mail-in ballots from citizens who had previously voted in person.
“I think that Marist can still do better in their voter turnout,” Julia Faber ‘23 said. “I think that the numbers increased in 2020 because it was easier to vote this time around, at least for my state. Every registered voter in New Jersey got sent a mail-in ballot, but usually being at college makes it a difficult task to vote because not everyone can go to their polling place and some don’t know what steps to take for other voting options.”
Based on the data from the 2020 election, students at Marist majoring in English language and literature had the highest voter turnout rate at 81%. Students majoring in history had one of the highest turnout rates among the different fields of study with an 80% participation rate in 2020. Hammond is a political science major at Marist and has balanced his classwork and job as a staffer to New York Assemblyman Colin J. Schmitt since 2020.
“In February of 2020, I started working for Assemblyman Colin J. Schmitt's office as a Constituent Liaison, and in January of this year, I was promoted to Special Assistant to Assemblyman Schmitt,” Hammond said. “The hundreds of constituents I have spoken with on the phone, met at events, and met in my office have left the biggest impact on me.”
Many students on campus are involved with civic engagement efforts, whether that is through an internship, a club or Marist Votes. With a continuous goal to increase registered voters on campus, Marist Votes works to get college-age students educated and interested in voting. Marist Votes provides a link between the college community and civic engagement so students understand how to vote and recognize the importance of the act itself.
The Institute for Democracy and Higher Education’s National Study of Learning, Voting and Engagement is the nation’s largest study of college and university student voting. Marist, like all other institutions involved, opted into the study which currently has data compiled on 1,200 campuses of all types.
“We attribute this high level of participation to many factors, including student activism on issues such as racial injustice, global climate change and voter suppression, as well as increased efforts by educators to reach students and connect them to the issues and to voting resources,” The Institute for Democracy and Higher Education Director Nancy Thomas said.
Marist did not report its race and ethnicity data so the breakdown of voting participation among different races and ethnicities on campus could not be conducted. The 2020 campus report proves that Marist students wanted to have their voices heard and many of them did that through the act of voting. With almost 70% of Marist students voting in the 2020 presidential election, it is currently marked as one of the college’s highest turnout rates in the 21st century.