Electoral education and engagement is essential to our democracy, and student engagement on our member campuses is a priority. Civic responsibility and duty means more than just showing up to cast a ballot on election day— it means engaging in your community and nation, and choosing candidates who share a vision for what matters. It starts with registering students to vote, but it must continue with educating students on who and what’s on the ballot, so that when election day comes, they are ready to vote informed and empowered. Most of the resources here are for voter information and ballot/candidate information to inform and educate student voters. We have compile documents and written Best Practice Guides to assist our members in in educating and engaging community college students in the electoral process.
TDC Best Practice Guides for Electoral Campus Engagement
- Best Practice Guide for Candidate/Issue Forums– Hosting candidate or election issue forums on campus.
- Best Practice Guide for Voter Registration Drives– Hosting voter registration drives on campus.
- Best Practice Guide for Get Out The Vote– Hosting Get-Out-The-Vote events on campus.
ADP/TDC Engage the Election 2016 Webinar Series
In order to offer a robust and comprehensive engage the election program, TDC/ADP presents a series of political engagement-focused webinars to keep campuses engaged throughout the year. Topics include: voter registration best practices, voting rights, research on youth electoral engagement, informed voting, creating a campus culture for political engagement, and political engagement beyond elections. This webinar series was open to faculty, staff, and students on our participating campuses as well as to the audiences of our partner organizations. Webinars were recorded and archived for those who are unable to participate in the live events.
Link to the Webinar Archives Page
Voting Information Resources
“How Do I Vote?” “Where Do I Vote?”
The Voting Information Project
The Voting Information Project (VIP) works with states to provide official information to voters about where to vote and what’s on their ballots. VIP is a partnership between The Pew Charitable Trusts, Google, and the states to ensure that voters have the official information they need to answer basic questions like “Where is my polling place?” What’s on my ballot?” and “How do I navigate the voting process?”
VIP uses an open format to make election data available and accessible, bringing cutting edge technology to ensure that all eligible Americans have the information they need to cast a ballot.
- Online- https://votinginfoproject.org/projects/vip-voting-information-tool/
- Look up polling place by address, find out what is on your ballot, and check election dates.
- Embed the tool on your campuses website.
- Online- Get to the Polls- https://gttp.votinginfoproject.org
- Find your polling place location through address.
- SMS Tools- https://votinginfoproject.org/projects/sms-tool/
- Provides voters with election information via text message.
Verified Voting
VerifiedVoting.org is a non-partisan non-profit organization that advocates for legislation and regulation that promotes accuracy, transparency and verifiability of elections. Learn about how voting machines work and how ballots counted.
Vote411.org
Launched by the League of Women Voters Education Fund (LWVEF) in October of 2006, VOTE411.org is a “one-stop-shop” for election related information. It provides nonpartisan information to the public with both general and state-specific information including voter registration verification
Ballot/Candidate Information Resources
“Who/What’s on the Ballot?”
Ballot Ready
BallotReady is a nonpartisan voting guide with fact checked coverage of candidates in 25 states all the way down the ballot. BallotReady is now live with nonpartisan coverage of every race and referendum on your ballot. In 25 states across America, BallotReady has compiled profiles of every local, state, and federal candidate so voters can go to the polls knowing who’s on their ballot. Go to BallotReady.org today to learn about every race and referendum on the ballot.
icitizen
icitizen provides an easy way to track the behavior of current officials in office. Users can create an individualized profile based on their demographic information and interests, and icitizen will customize the results. This app also gives users the option to rate their elected officials and provide them with feedback and opinions on the issues that matter most to them. Visit the website or download the app to find out what the elected officials running for reelection have done while in office. http://www.icitizen.com/
NBCUVoterEducation.com
As a one-stop shop, NBCUVoterEducation.com provides simple ways to learn about the candidates (both national and local), answers questions regarding voter laws and identification for each state, and guide visitors to Register to Vote online. Their Candidate Match Quiz is a fun and easy way to get to know each candidate’s position on the issues that matter most. By taking this quick quiz, visitors can gain a better understanding of each candidate’s position on critical matters and see how it aligns with their personal views. To help at every stage of the process, the site also answers commonly asked questions in Voter FAQs, allows users to locate their Polling Place, find out what to take to the voting booth in the Voter ID Laws section and paints the picture of what to expect At the Polls. All of these non-partisan tools are available in both English and Spanish.
Electoral Information Resources
“How Does it Work?”
270toWin
270towin.com is an interactive Electoral College map for 2016 and a history of Presidential elections in the United States. It is essentially an interactive map for do-it-yourself projections of the electoral college results in the presidential election. Since electoral votes are generally allocated on an “all or none” basis by state, the election of a U.S President is about winning the popular vote in enough states to achieve 270 electoral votes, a majority of the 538 that are available. Maps are downloadable and also contains interactive maps for other political races.
Countable
Countable: Contact Congress and Vote on Bills. Featured on MSNBC, the Today Show, The New York Times, Wired, Politico, Google Play, and the iTunes App Store, Countable makes learning about what your government is up to easy and fun. Learn about issues you care about, influence Congress with one tap voting, and rally your friends around specific legislation.
Electionary
Electionary is a free, comprehensive guide to state voting rights and election administration laws. Electionary is researched and managed by Project Vote, which is a national nonpartisan, nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization whose mission is to build an electorate that accurately represents the diversity of America’s citizenry and to ensure that every eligible citizen can register, vote, and cast a ballot that counts.
Vote Smart
Vote Smart provides free, unbiased, in-depth information about current officials, candidates, issues, legislation, and voting. Vote Smart, formerly called Project Vote Smart, is a non-profit, non-partisan research organization that collects and distributes information on candidates for public office in the United States.
Electoral Student Education and Engagement
Other and previous complied lists of resources:
- S. Political Parties & Organizations (pdf)
- Guide to Informed Voting (pdf)
- Electoral Engagement Apps (pdf)
- Voter Education Websites (pdf)
All resources are public, but attribution is appreciated.
Quick Links to TDC Resources for Member Institutions: