Alverno College students take voting seriously

November 5, 2018

There's an impression that college students typically don't vote, but that couldn't be further from the truth at Alverno College. When compared to student voting rates at 1,000 other national institutions, Alverno students voted at a higher rate than the national rate. The numbers, compiled by the National Study of Learning, Voting and Engagement out of Tufts University (idhe.tufts.edu/NSLVE) tell the story:

Student voter registration rates (% of Alverno students who were registered to vote)

• 2012 83.3%
• 2014 74.2%
• 2016 78.4%

Voting rate of registered students (% of Alverno students who were registered to vote and who actually voted)

• 2012 90.9%
• 2014 66.4%
• 2016 87.9%

Voting rate of Alverno students (% of Alverno students who voted, of the number of Alverno students who were eligible to vote by virtue of age and citizenship) compared to the National Average of student voting rate for all NSLVE institutions

• 2012 75.7% NA
• 2014 49.3% 19.1%
• 2016 68.9% 50.4%

Students from Alverno College will be gathering in groups and heading to the polls throughout the day to cast their ballots in the midterm elections. One student in particular has been working very hard to help fellow students register to vote, learn where they can find out more about the candidates, and to vote early if they could. Katherine Watson has been a tireless advocate when it comes to getting other students to practice their effective citizenship (one of Alverno's eight abilities) and who has led the get-out-the-vote effort on campus.