Penn State Voting Resources

Help your students get ready to vote!

A resource created by the General Education Faculty Scholars with support from the Office for General Education and guidance from PSU Votes and the Centre County Elections Office.

Election campaign flat vector illustration. Political system metaphor. Choosing president, parliament. Encouraging to vote. Act of democracy. Voting for new leader cartoon characters

HOW SUPPORTING STUDENT VOTING CONNECTS TO YOUR GENERAL EDUCATION COURSE

Social responsibility and ethical reasoning are amongst the learning objectives of the University’s general education curriculum.

SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND ETHICAL REASONING LEARNING OBJECTIVE IN THE PENN STATE GENERAL EDUCATION CURRICULUM

“The ability to assess one’s own values within the social context of problems, recognize ethical issues in a variety of settings, describe how different perspectives might be applied to ethical dilemmas, and consider the ramifications of alternative actions. Individuals should acquire the self-knowledge and leadership skills needed to play a role in creating and maintaining healthy, civil, safe, and thriving communities.”

Decision between right or left, yes or no, Business decisions, e

Some Important Guidelines For Talking To Students About Voting

All voting-related course content must be non-partisan,

non-compulsory, and non-incentivized.

As you think about teaching during this election cycle, there are a few things to consider.



It is illegal

to “pay” for votes in any way, including extra credit or assignment points. Play it safe. Do NOT provide incentives for voting or even for registration. Registration and voting can be encouraged, but are optional.



It is imperative

that everything you communicate (verbally or non-verbally) is evidence-based and non-partisan.

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Remember...

voting forms and any information they may contain must not be collected by faculty.

Faculty should review Penn State Policies AC 64 and AD 92 for additional guidance.

Student Voting at Penn State

How can faculty support student engagement?

The good news is that student voting at Penn State is generally trending upward. Indeed, the 2020 voting rate at PSU rose 13% from 2016 and closely matched the national average! To build momentum towards higher participation in our elections, Penn State has joined the All In Campus Democracy Challenge, a nationwide effort to engage college students in voting, the Big 10 Voting Challenge, and the Pennsylvania Campus Voting Challenge, sponsored by the PA Department of State. PSU Votes is our university initiative to coordinate many efforts on campus.

Despite our progress, primaries, mid-term, and odd-year elections are more of a challenge. Though Penn State campuses nearly doubled their 2014 voting rate in 2018, only 36% of students voted. In 2022, Penn State students’ voting rate actually dropped to about 34%, though our rate was higher than the average institution, according to the National Study of Learning, Voting and Engagement report for Penn State, supported by Tufts University. Thus, each year is its own challenge! Faculty can play a key role in reminding students that elections happen every year, twice a year!

Below, we share resources and ideas for supporting your students as they navigate the registration, education, and voting processes. Help your students vote successfully in this election—wherever they are located at Penn State.

Support Student Voting In Your Courses

Registering to vote isn’t easy for students. Will they register at home or at an address where they live while attending Penn State? Is their address up to date? How do they request a mail-in ballot or find their local polling place? Rules can change, and students need up-to-date information that they can trust. Also, sometimes students harbor misconceptions about registration and voting that can scuttle their attempts to vote.

To illustrate student voting challenges, in the lead-up to the 2022 General Election at the University Park campus, the Centre County elections office rejected at least 200 registrations because of various, but typical, registration errors. Furthermore, on Election Day in 2022, 316 provisional ballots issued at the HUB-Robeson Center polling location were later rejected as valid votes by the county elections board. Students are ultimately responsible for their own readiness to vote, but it seems like some additional education is in order to reduce the scale of these failures.

Faculty can make a difference by providing specific information, education, and support at three key times during the election season. Below are resources and reminders that are vetted, easy to use, do not require your expertise, and are minimally disruptive to your instruction.

Until October 21: Register! Update! Confirm!

Encourage students to get their voter registration forms completed or updated.

Pennsylvania Voter Registration Application & Mail-in Ballot Request

View full application HERE

Canvas Voting Module for the 2024 General Election

Great news! This Canvas module is the most comprehensive and the easiest thing you can do to promote student voting! Just download it from the Canvas Commons into your course and let the students know it’s there. Offer it as an enrichment or extra credit activity! Click the link below to learn more and for instructions on how to import the module.

Learn About The 2024 General Election

What can you do in your classes?

It’s best to use only PSU Votes or Penn State-specific or government resources in your classroom. Avoid having non-PSU Votes groups enter your class to talk about voter registration and/or register students to vote.

The easiest and most robust resource for students is the Learn about the 2024 General Election Canvas Module (see above). Upload it into your course from Canvas Commons, and invite the students to take it before October 21. You can incentivize completion of the module with extra credit as an enrichment activity.

Consider posting the downloadable Register to vote slide in Canvas and/or show the PSU Votes Why Vote? video, which is under two minutes.

October 21-November 4: Educate!

Encourage students to research candidates, return mail-in ballots, or make a plan to vote on Election Day. PSU Votes is a great place for students to find information.

Election Day-November 5: Vote!

Tips For Class

In spring 2023, the Faculty Senate passed a revision to policy 42-27 (Class Attendance) setting an expectation that instructors provide, within reason, a remote asynchronous instruction day on Election Day in November.

Conduct your asynchronous instruction as much as possible in Canvas to ensure students can readily access course materials.
Communicate Election Day expectations well in advance.
Consider putting Election Day (November 5) on your course calendar as an important date.
Post a “Vote!” reminder in Canvas or make a verbal announcement in class.
The Schreyer Institute has summarized additional guidance you may find helpful.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Faculty have an important role to play in helping students become informed, engaged citizens.

For University Park faculty, you may submit a request to psuvotes@psu.edu to have a representative from PSU VOTES or the UPUA Voting Advocacy Roundtable to provide a voter registration presentation to your class, subject to availability.