After extensive voter registration efforts, the student-led group focuses on getting students to make their voices heard in the November general election.
Baldwin Wallace University is gearing up to turn out the campus vote this fall on the heels of earning a Silver Seal from the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge, "reflecting the University's commitment to ensuring that nonpartisan democratic engagement is a defining feature of campus life."
The ALL IN rating, which is based on the 2022 campus voting rate from the National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement (NSLVE) report, is down from BW's showing in the 2018 midterms.
Now, the Jackets Engaged Political Engagement Team, part of the BW David and Frances Brain Center for Community Engagement, is out to meet the very high bar for a general presidential election year set in 2020 when more than 70% of BW students voted, earning BW a Gold ALL IN status.
To that end, the group, led by student director and political science major Derek Larner '26, engaged first in voter registration activities on campus, including an appearance by the League of Women Voters' traveling Airstream early in the semester.
"I've always believed that young people are the future and catalysts for change, but we are often underestimated," Larner says. "We understand the issues at stake in this election, and our main goal is to motivate young people to be engaged and involved in the process."
During this "Early Vote Week" (October 21-26), the goal is to urge students to submit their ballots early.
A range of activities, including voter education sessions, a Mini Debate, Democracy Trivia and Election Bingo, lead up to Saturday's "Parade to the Polls," which will feature a food truck, yard signs, candidate materials and transportation to early voting locations.
"We hope to help students see how election issues relate to their own everyday lives and to believe their vote matters," Larner observes. "Voting early is important because you never know how classwork, long lines, bad weather or other factors might make it hard to get to the polls on election day."
Jackets Engaged has been conducting voter registration and education since 2015.
More than 1,060 institutions enrolling more than 10 million students participate in the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge, which supports colleges and universities in achieving excellence in nonpartisan student voter engagement.
The ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge empowers colleges and universities to achieve excellence in nonpartisan student democratic engagement. BW was recognized alongside more than 500 campuses using data from the National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement (NSLVE) out of Tufts University, which found that colleges and universities had the second-highest voter turnout among students in a midterm election since NSLVE began measuring this data. The full list of campus award winners can be viewed here.
