UMD Recognized as 2024 ALL IN Most Engaged Campus for College Student Voting

The ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge this week named the University of Maryland a 2024 Most Engaged Campus for College Student Voting. UMD joins a group of 471 colleges and universities recognized for outstanding efforts to increase nonpartisan student voter participation.

Leading the charge on campus was TerpsVote, a nonpartisan coalition of students, staff and faculty that strives to increase civic engagement at UMD by providing educational resources and encouraging positive voting behavior.

Between Aug. 1 and Election Day, the TerpsVote website (terpsvote.umd.edu) tallied 17,708 pageviews. As of Nov. 11, 1,811 students signed up to update their voter registration, find their polling place, request a mail-in ballot and more on the group’s Turbovote website. In person, TerpsVote organized or collaborated on 38 events from August to November, and it partnered to display VOTE (Fearlessly!), an informational pop-up installation, for 60 days on campus.

On Election Day alone, TerpsVote served 920 students at its Voter Resource Center in the Stamp Student Union, and approximately 1,000 Terps visited the TerpsVote table in the main lobby to get support. Additionally, the coalition responded to 550 online chats that day.

“My underlying goal for TerpsVote this year was to be as much all over campus as we could be—which was thankfully possible because of our team of 10 student ambassadors, two student interns, 38 student volunteers and several campus partners,” said Naomi Cohen, coordinator of social action and engagement who leads TerpsVote. “To see so many students engaged and wanting to vote was incredibly energizing and exciting for my whole team. We learned so much this season, and we are so looking forward to continuing this work in future years.”

Campuses that join the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge complete a set of action items, with the support of ALL IN staff, to institutionalize nonpartisan civic learning and voter participation on their campus. The challenge engages 10.8 million students from more than 1,075 schools in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

“This year we saw more colleges than ever before step up their efforts to ensure that their students were registered and ready to make their voices heard at the ballot box,” said Jennifer Domagal-Goldman, executive director of the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge. “These Most Engaged Campuses are setting the standard for nonpartisan civic engagement work for colleges and universities across the country.”