Yale Creates Actionable Voting Hub to Help Students Participate in 2024 Elections
Nina Fattore, Associate Director for University Life at Yale University, has a goal to reach, register, and turn out as many students as possible for elections. Knowing the importance of driving engagement in fall 2024 elections in particular, she and her team started to map out their university’s plan for the upcoming federal election back in April 2024. She knew there was much to be done to ensure the Yale Votes site was ready to meet the needs of their students. She also knew that TurboVote would be key to those plans. Yale has used TurboVote since 2018 to increase student participation in elections with success, but Nina saw an opportunity to expand the offering in time for the 2024 election cycle.
In coordination with the TurboVote Partnerships team, Yale web developers and other stakeholders, Fattore worked to create a voting hub on Yale’s website that would be eye-catching, useful, and easily-accessible for students. The deadline to make this vision a reality: the week of September 10, when they would train over 50 student employees as “democracy liaisons” to use and speak about the new voting hub with fellow students during the months leading up to the election.
“The end goal [for Yale] is to achieve 100% student voter participation. TurboVote is an important tool for the administrative and logistic aspects of what that looks like on campus–so that we get 100% student voter engagement, so that we can increase turnout, and increase participation for this historic upcoming election. Democracy participation is a part of citizenship and becoming an active participant in society. And so we try to support our students in every way we possibly can to do that. TurboVote is one of the tools that has become an integral resource to us and our mission.”
TurboVote is embedded directly into the Yale Votes site to provide students and staff with quick, easy access to voting information.
Yale’s custom voting hub with TurboVote embeds (an option where partners can plug TurboVote tools into their own website) was built and tested just in time for the National Voter Registration Day (NVRD) training. Yale’s voting hub leverages TurboVote voter registration assistance and registration status check tools, as well as guides for contacting election officials and finding information about voting absentee/by mail. Compared to 2020, Yale has already seen a 58% increase in TurboVote signups this year. On NVRD alone, Yale reached more than 150 new users, marking an exciting launch for their new voting hub for this fall, and for future election cycles. Fattore noted that TurboVote helped Yale effectively address student voter engagement challenges because the platform is “all-encompassing and very easy and intuitive to navigate."
As Yale University demonstrates, creating a custom voting hub with integrated TurboVote tools can significantly boost student voter engagement. By combining sleek design, easy accessibility, and comprehensive resources, institutions can empower their students to become active participants in the democratic process. Yale's success story serves as an inspiration for other universities looking to increase civic participation among their student body. Initiatives like Yale's custom voting hub, powered by TurboVote, play a crucial role in ensuring that the voices of young voters are heard and that the next generation of leaders is fully engaged in shaping the future of their communities and country.
