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Prepared by the Yale College Democrats MARCH 2021 TABLE of CONTENTS

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Prepared by the Yale College Democrats MARCH 2021 TABLE of CONTENTS YALE VOTING CLIMATE REPORT Prepared by the Yale college democrats MARCH 2021 TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 0 1 Proposals 0 2 How Yale compares to peer institutions 0 5 Voting history at yale 1 4 Voter accessibility in private and public 2 3 Sectors Concluding remarks 2 6 0 1 INTRODUCTION This report provides a comprehensive history of Yale’s past and present support of student voting. In analyzing recently collected data of over 1,000 undergraduate students, we document voting barriers to Yale students, peer institutions’ civic engagement models, and administrative efforts to support student voting. This report has four sections. The first section introduces proposals and the remaining sections offer supporting evidence, using data analysis and archival research. Our proposals are intended to maximize voting accessibility for all Yale community members. In 2018, Yale had a registration rate of 75% but the voting rate of registered voters was only 62.4%, yielding a total voting rate of 46.8% among eligible student voters. These proposals would improve Yale's current voter education and registration tools, reduce student barriers to voting, and ultimately encourage community members to be engaged citizens. In the short term, New Haven has a mayoral and aldermanic election in the fall of 2021. In the long term, the registration and voting rates of eligible student voters should increase for all local, state, and national elections. Many of these proposals are shared goals and are not unique to the Yale College Democrats. In particular, the university-wide Election Day holiday and civic engagement center proposals developed through on-going conversations with the Yale College Council and Every Vote Counts through the Yale Votes Task Force. The following sections present information that compare Yale to peer institutions, insight into the voting tradition at Yale, and trends in public and private job sectors that indicate how voting functions in the post-college world. This report conveys the importance of institutionalized civic engagement practices at Yale and provides a comprehensive review of students' voting barriers. Our hope is that readers gain a better understanding of the significance of this time-sensitive matter. Contributors: Grace Whittington '22, President Kennedy Bennett '22, Vice President Nicole Jefferson '22, Voter Engagement Coordinator Colby Bladow '24, Voter Engagement Fellow Vanessa Nunez '23, Voter Engagement Fellow MARCH 2021 Isabella Morales '24, Voter Engagement Fellow 0 2 PROPOSALS University-Wide Election Day Holiday In the 2016 election, only 56.7% of Yale students cast their ballots. In the 2018 midterm elections, Yale voter participation decreased to 46.8% of eligible student voters. Voters consistently face long lines at the polls and misinformation regarding voting processes. In the 2020 YCC Fall Survey, students were asked if Yale should make Election Day a University Holiday, with the understanding that one break day would be subtracted from October Break, Summer Break, Fall Break or Winter Break. 76.5% of students who responded to the survey said they would be in favor, and the vast majority would prefer the day be taken from summer break. Making Election Day a university holiday would not only increase student voter turnout but would also significantly increase accessibility to voting for faculty and staff. While professors are at individual discretion to cancel classes and not assign work, this decision is not uniform and therefore disadvantages some students over others. Although the physical act of casting the ballot once in the voting booth may not take all day, the survey showed that with Election Day as a university-wide holiday, students would pursue additional forms of civic engagement––being poll workers, helping others with the voting process, and serving as ballot counters. Additionally, long lines and wait times make it difficult to predict how long voting will take should students decide to vote in person. This requires restructuring of the day and potentially missing classes. A university-wide Election Day holiday would reduce these barriers to students, faculty, and staff and would contribute to higher rates of participation in civic engagement. P R O P O S A L S 0 3 Robust Absentee Ballot System In 2018, it was a Yale policy to return absentee ballots to senders that were addressed to residential colleges. Consequently, students lost their ballots and tried to appeal to the administration to track their ballots. Many Yale College students do not have PO Boxes. The inability to access election related mail at residential colleges disproportionately affects low-income students who cannot afford to purchase a PO Box. Exceptions were made in the 2020 election cycle due to the coronavirus pandemic. Students who lived on campus and did not have a PO Box were allowed to receive election related mail to residential college offices for the November 2020 presidential election. In the coming years, we hope that this change would become a permanent policy––enabling students to receive all election-related mail in their residential colleges. Standardizing this practice for years to come would create greater accessibility to students who receive absentee ballots and would reduce confusion. Include Registration Materials During First-Year Orientation The first weeks of a student’s Yale experience are influential to the rest of their college experience. During orientation, first-year students spend time getting to know peers in their residential college and FroCo group with scheduled workshops and programming. They are also required to attend Communication and Consent Educator trainings, sexual misconduct trainings, and are exposed to public safety information, as well as resources such as Mental Health and Counseling and SHARE. In addition to the current workshops that offer students insight into the Yale community, we propose a uniform distribution of voter registration materials to first-year students via the FroCos. These workshops would include content about the voting process in New Haven, absentee ballot information, and would conclude by registering students through TurboVote. P R O P O S A L S 0 4 Include Registration Materials During First-Year Orientation We believe integrating voter registration into first-year orientation is an optimal time in a Yalie’s career to introduce them to civic engagement efforts on campus. Making an effort to register students from the beginning advances the probability of participating in elections later on and will convey to first- year students that this is something Yale cares about as a collective. Establish a Civic Engagement Center Students' civic engagement efforts have poor support from Yale administrative offices compared to peer institutions. The major obstacle to student participation in civic engagement at Yale is that voting coalitions––such as the Yale Votes Task Force––have limited administrative support and lack a consistent structure. We propose that the Yale Votes Task Force be operated within a formal civic engagement center that is housed within a physical space on Yale’s campus. Modeled similarly to the administratively-backed existing centers at Brown University, Harvard University, and Northwestern University, the Yale Civic Engagement center would be devoted to providing learning opportunities, resources, and community engagement initiatives. Brown’s Civic Engagement Center, also known as the Swearer Center operates within the Dean of the College’s Office. It consists of two student liaisons, an advisory committee, and working committees. Harvard’s civic engagement center is housed in the Institute of Politics and includes elected chairs and leadership positions for both students and administrators. Establishing a civic engagement center at Yale would require faculty participation as well as significant administrative support. In the long term, we hope this could be a place that offers paid positions, extends beyond the scope of voting, and contributes to cultivating a more visible culture of civic engagement on Yale’s campus. 0 5 HOW YALE COMPARES TO PEER INSTITUTIONS Yale must make significant strides in institutionalizing civic engagement networks to meet the standards that peer institutions have established. Building more robust structures for civic engagement would ensure that all students and faculty are able to fully participate in and engage with electoral politics. Brown University and Columbia University have named Election Day a University holiday; Harvard University, Cornell University, and Northwestern University have integrated civic engagement efforts into established student centers on campus; even more universities have included civic education and registration in first- year orientation programming, course registration, and other university-wide opportunities to reach students. Yale has not instituted any of the aforementioned policies, and it is crucial that the university progresses. THE NATIONAL STUDY OF LEARNING, VOTING, AND ENGAGEMENT The National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement (NSLVE) provides resources to colleges and universities to better understand their students' voting patterns and is a research database on student voting, political engagement, and democracy across U.S. college and university campuses. It is operated through the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life at Tufts University. P E E R I N S T I T U T I O N S 0 6 ALL IN DEMOCRACY CHALLENGE The ALL IN Democracy Challenge
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