Fall Is Voter Registration Season

Orientation. Fall sports. Homecoming. Voter registration.

During an election year, institutions are obliged to include one more important item to the campus activity list: voter registration. The Higher Ed Act (HEA) requires institutions receiving federal funding to make a good faith effort to distribute voter registration forms to students prior to registration deadlines for presidential and gubernatorial elections.

To assist campuses in complying with this requirement, NAICU developed the Your Vote Your Voice (YVYV) website, which provides a number of helpful resources, including an interactive national voter registration map. Just click on your state to identify your voting registration and absentee ballot deadlines. The YVYV website also has a summary of the HEA requirements, a list of trusted voter and election-related resources, a link to a nonpartisan voter registration portal, and a comprehensive briefing memo on student voting prepared by the American Council on Education.

As part of this year’s YVYV campaign, NAICU held a webinar in June, Preparing Your Campus for the 2024 Elections, which featured legal and crisis communications experts, as well as an official from the National Association of Secretaries of State. The presentations and robust Q & A provided a solid overview not only of the obligations of campuses around voter registration, but also strategies to promote healthy civic engagement and pitfalls to avoid.

This year National Voter Registration Day will be held September 17, which coincides with Constitution Day (See Constitution Day Is Coming)