Simpson Recognized for Student Voter Participation Efforts

Simpson has been recognized by the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge (ALL IN) as a 2024 ALL IN Most Engaged Campus for College Student Voting. The ALL IN Most Engaged Campuses for College Student Voting recognizes colleges and universities for outstanding efforts to increase nonpartisan student voter participation. Simpson joins a group of 471 colleges and universities recognized by ALL IN for completing four core actions:

• Participating in the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge
• Sharing 2022 NSLVE Reports with campus voting data with ALL IN
• Developing and submitting a 2024 democratic engagement action plan with ALL IN
• Having a current signatory to ALL IN’s Higher Education Presidents’ Commitment to Full Student Voter Participation.

“Simpson’s nonpartisan student-led Voter Engagement team of Ambassadors for the Andrew Goodman Foundation’s Vote Everywhere program develops and carries out a comprehensive campus voting plan that reaches all segments of the student body,” said Seth Andersen, Director of the John C. Culver Public Policy Center at Simpson College. “Their dedication to promoting student voting has produced some of the highest student voter registration and voter turnout rates among four-year institutions in Iowa and across the country.”

“The research is clear: colleges and universities that make intentional efforts to increase nonpartisan democratic engagement have higher campus voter registration and voter turnout rates. This year we saw more colleges than ever before step up their efforts to ensure that their students were registered and ready to make their voices heard at the ballot box,” said Jennifer Domagal-Goldman, Executive Director of the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge. “These Most Engaged Campuses are setting the standard for nonpartisan civic engagement work for colleges and universities across the country.”

As a long-time participant in the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge and one of the founding 15 campuses in the Andrew Goodman Foundation’s Vote Everywhere network, Simpson College demonstrates its commitment to full student voting participation by institutionalizing democratic engagement across the curriculum and through innovative co-curricular programs spearheaded by the John C. Culver Public Policy Center. All new students learn about civic engagement opportunities on campus and have an opportunity to register to vote in Simpson’s Foundations I first-year seminar courses each fall. The College also hosts a satellite polling place on campus and operates an altered class schedule during each biennial General Election to give all students free time to vote.

The ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge empowers colleges and universities to achieve excellence in nonpartisan student democratic engagement. Campuses that join the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge complete a set of action items, with the support of ALL IN staff, to institutionalize nonpartisan civic learning and voter participation on their campus. The ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge currently engages 10.8 million students from more than 1,075 institutions in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Campuses can join the ALL IN Challenge here.