Voting at Humboldt State University Skyrocketed in 2020

Founders Hall HSU [Photo from HSU]

Founders Hall HSU [Photo from HSU]

Press release from HSU:

Humboldt State University [yesterday] reported that student voting on its campus increased 25% in last year’s presidential election, rising to 72% in 2020 from a rate of 47% in 2016.

“I am proud of our students for engaging and taking our civil responsibility of voting seriously,” says Eboni Turnbow, HSU Dean of Students. “The HSU community prides itself on our commitment to social and environmental responsibility, so it’s amazing to see our students actively working to make a difference in the world.”

The report comes from the Institute for Democracy & Higher Education (IDHE), creators of the National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement, or NSLVE. IDHE is located at Tufts University’s Tisch College of Civic Life.

Nationwide, the study’s authors report a record-breaking set of findings. On campuses across the country, students built on the momentum swing of 2018 and voted at high rates in the 2020 election, with voter turnout jumping to 66% in last year’s presidential election. The 14 percentage point increase, from 52% turnout in the 2016 election, outpaces that of all Americans, which jumped 6 percentage points from 61% to 67%, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

“That students, often younger and first-time voters, turned out at rates commensurate with the general public is nothing short of stunning,” said IDHE Director Nancy Thomas. “We attribute this high level of participation to many factors, including student activism on issues such as racial injustice, global climate change, and voter suppression, as well as increased efforts by educators to reach students and connect them to the issues and to voting resources.”

IDHE’s National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement is the nation’s largest study of college and university student voting. Institutions must opt-in to the study, and at this time, nearly 1,200 campuses of all types—community colleges, research universities, minority-serving and women’s colleges, state universities, and private institutions—participate. The dataset reflects all 50 states and the District of Columbia and includes 49 of the nation’s 50 flagship schools. IDHE uses de-identified student records to ensure student privacy. The 2020 dataset is robust with 8,880,700 voting-eligible students representing 1,051 colleges and universities.

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18 Comments
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Hugh ManateeD
Member
2 years ago

I guess they don’t teach math at HSU anymore?
Going from 47% to 72% is a 52% increase, not a 25% increase as the press release states.

It increased 25 percentage points, but not 25%. Two different things.

I guess I am just showing my white privilege though by expecting correct math rather than just praising the writer for their good try.

Ernie Branscomb
Guest
Ernie Branscomb
2 years ago
Reply to  Hugh Manatee

That reminds me of the merchant that bought things and marked them up 40 percent. (100+40=140) Then sold then at a twenty percent discount. (140x.20=28 ) (140-28=112) He thought that he was making twenty dollars on the sale and wondered who was robbing the till.

Eric Kirk
Guest
Eric Kirk
2 years ago
Reply to  Hugh Manatee

This is the administration!

c u 2morrowD
Member
2 years ago

if I recall correctly, there was a major effort to get the students to the polls, even if they weren’t registered voters. They would transport them in vehicles, and register them at the the counties office of election site. This was a concentrated political effort to get the first orange race man out of office.

Last edited 2 years ago
Alf
Guest
Alf
2 years ago

When I was a college student, if you weren’t a local student, voter registration was not really even allowed. Now we have a bunch of visitors who don’t give a shit about Humboldt County voting here and then they leave, never having to live with the idiots they vote in or the problems they create. Doesn’t seem right to me, but yet I’m still considered an outsider after living here almost 30 years and these students are visiting 2 or 3 years tops.

Bug on a Windshield
Guest
Bug on a Windshield
2 years ago
Reply to  Alf

Right there with you. Been here since 1996, been voting “locally” since the turn of the century. I have always felt that students should not vote in local elections unless they grew up in the area. Which is why I voted in neither Hum elections nor Sandy Eggo elections while I was attending school here. Only when I decided to make this a home, did I begin voting locally. I continued to vote nationally the entire time.

Last edited 2 years ago
local observer
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local observer
2 years ago

this article is about students voting in the presidential election. they can’t vote locally. and blaming local problems on outsiders is short sided.

Bug on a Windshield
Guest
Bug on a Windshield
2 years ago
Reply to  local observer

Considering all the tangents folks go off on on other threads, I figured commenting about local voting on a national voting article was well within bounds. Students can vote locally, and they do. I very well could have, but I chose not to; my ballot contained local issues because I was registered locally. If I had voted in November for a dumbass mayor because he was cool to students or, say, to remove a statue, or keep goat herding out of the Bottoms, then moved out of town the following Spring never to look back, you don’t think that’s a local problem caused in part by outsiders?

Praying Mantis
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Praying Mantis
2 years ago

Hey, I’m the tangent writer, and I thought this was a safe space…but thanks for my new name tangent 5000

Bug on a Windshield
Guest
Bug on a Windshield
2 years ago

Also makes me wonder, and maybe someone with some legaleez can answer. A parent claims a child on their taxes, because the child lives under the same roof. While going to school, the child is “staying” at the school, but their home, where they live, is under the parents’ roof. If the child’s home is in another town, can the child register to vote in the school town? Yes. But, if the child does, are they now considered “living” in the school town and not with the parents? Does that mean the parents cannot claim the child on their taxes?

Last edited 2 years ago
local observer
Guest
local observer
2 years ago

the child tax credit is for 18 and under. so the answer is NA except for maybe a few brilliant kids in the entire USA.

c u 2morrowD
Member
2 years ago
Reply to  Alf

you have been here three decades. If you can tell me who the first mayor of Eureka was and who led the first cattle drive out of Humboldt county your no longer an outsider to me.

Joshua WoodsD
Member
2 years ago
Reply to  Alf

Yep, HUGE problem!!

Eric Kirk
Guest
Eric Kirk
2 years ago
Reply to  Alf

If the local elections department was denying students the right to vote, they were breaking the law. Yes, the students leave, but they are replaced by other students and students are a group with interests just like any other sector of a local community.

Joshua WoodsD
Member
2 years ago

Radical left claims. Climate change… Does the scientific method not matter anymore? Do these “smart” people not know climate change has not been proven through the scientific method?
Whose vote is being suppressed? I’ve not seen any legal citizen being denied the right to vote.
Racial injustice? How about all the racist attacks against white people? Oh, sorry. Racism somehow cannot exist against white people.

trackback

[…] The HSU press release posted in the Redheaded Blackbelt article credits organizing and professors, but the dramatic increase in college turnouts in California has much to do with the new policy of mailing ballots to all voters – which is why there is a good chance that Democrats will retake four or five House seats next year. […]

Country Joe
Member
2 years ago

Everybody adult should vote…

Connie DobbsD
Member
Connie Dobbs
2 years ago

This why you can’t have nice statues, Arcata.