Nov. 2, 2022 —If statistics from the 2020 election are any indication, CSU Channel Islands (CSUCI) students are very likely to show up at the polls for the critical 2022 midterm elections.
According to The National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement (NSLVE) out of Tufts University, CSUCI voting rates increased from 55% showing up at the polls in 2016 to 77% in 2020, a 22% point increase.
“Voting rates across the state increased during this period, also, from 59% in 2016 to 71% in 2020, but this was only a 12% point increase, compared with CSUCI’s 22% increase,” said CSUCI Director of Institutional Research & Chief Data Officer Matt Zivot, Ph.D. “This is an indication that the gains we saw at CSUCI reflected the hard work done by the Associated Students, Inc. (ASI) team, over and above a general change in voter interest and universal voting by mail.”
Class of 2019 History graduate Atticus Reyes was ASI student government president during the 2018/2019 academic year and remembers the concerted effort ASI, advised by ASI Executive Director Helen Alatorre, made to get students to vote.
“What inspired this effort was the post-2016 feeling that young people didn’t get out and vote,” Reyes said. “I’m not saying we shouldn’t have accountability, but I wanted to demonstrate that young people and students are energized to engage in democracy when they are given a space to be heard.”
That space opened up with ASI’s efforts and with the California Secretary of State’s 2018 launching of the California University and College Ballot Bowl, developed by the California Students Vote Project (SVP).
The Ballot Bowl is a friendly competition in which all of California’s major higher education institutions—the California Community College (CCC), California State University (CSU), University of California (UC), and the Association of Independent California Colleges and Universities (AICCU)—are invited to compete to register the most students to vote.
As the size of all campuses vary widely (CSUCI had about 7,000 students at that time), winners were decided by percentages. The very first year the Ballot Bowl was held—2018—CSUCI came in first among all the other CSU campuses with the largest percentage of students registered to vote.
Reyes, and members of the ASI created as much buzz as they could around the Ballot Bowl by creating events with booths where students could register to vote and get questions answered, and by inviting speakers to campus.
“Government is already confusing so the very first thing we did was to get some education,” Reyes said. “We brought out Betsy Patterson (then president) from the League of Women Voters to give us a crash course on the election. We did a whole bunch of press. We had tables around the campus with student government representatives.”
Reyes believes a huge factor in CSUCI’s success was good accessibility to voter information— especially the online student portal, which provided a “one-stop shop” for students to register for class and register to vote simultaneously.
Student government representatives, including this year’s ASI president, Ilien Tolteca, have continued to keep the energy going around the Ballot Bowl and student voting with social media, extra marketing, and regular events with information tables set up around campus.
“Part of this year’s campaign has been called ‘Raise Your Voice,’” Alatorre said. “That is because we have the opportunity to have students understand that they actually have power as a registered voter and their voices matter in this process.”
There is every reason for students to care about this election, said Reyes, 25, who works for California State Assemblymember Steve Bennett, and Reyes is set to be sworn in on the Ojai Unified School District Board in December.
“I think we’ve all been learning that we took a lot of our rights for granted,” he said. “There is a big debate about the direction of this country and we have a say when it comes to student debt, basic needs, voting rights, and reproductive justice. However, I think the biggest thrust for our generation is climate change.”
Young people care, Reyes said, and he thinks that will be reflected in the demographic turnout for the 2022 midterm election on Nov. 8.
“I think you’re going to see young people come out in droves,” Reyes said. “It’s been a consistent, upward trend, year after year. They will show up in huge numbers.”
For more on the Ballot Bowl, visit: https://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/ballot-bowl.