Engage the Election: 2018 is a direct response by Campus Compact, through its newly acquired initiative, The Democracy Commitment (TDC), to the midterm elections in 2018. Its goal is to create wide-reaching electoral engagement opportunities for community college students, many of whom are first-generation, low-income, and students of color. This project, which is made possible by Young Invincibles and the Students Learn Students Vote (SLSV) coalition, is intended to produce ideas, principles, and practices for effective electoral engagement at community colleges that take into deep consideration the unique opportunities and challenges presented on community college campuses and are reflective of their special ties to the community.

The 14 community college mini-grant recipients will serve as case studies for the project, ultimately producing resources that will be useful to a broader network of campuses. In addition, the Engage the Election: 2018 project will include a variety of other tools that will be available to all 1,000+ Campus Compact member institutions, including a webinar series and a National Voter Registration Day event.

Campuses were selected to receive the grant to ensure that a diverse group of community colleges were represented. The following is the full list of the Engage the Election 2018 grant recipients from Campus Compact:

Allegany College of Maryland (MD)
College of the Canyons (CA)
Delta College (MI)
Johnson County Community College (KS)
CUNY Kingsborough Community College (NY)
Kirkwood Community College (IA)
Lane Community College (OR)
Mesa Community College (AZ)
Monroe Community College (NY)
Piedmont Virginia Community College (VA)
Raritan Valley Community College (NJ)
Santa Fe College (FL)
Tarrant County College- Southeast Campus (TX)
Wilbur Wright College (IL)

Virtual Dialogue Series

Engage the Election project presents a series of virtual dialogues on the electoral power of Community Colleges. This three-part series community college practitioners sharing best practices from their institutions, followed by an open dialogue concerning the unique challenges and opportunities in voter registration, education, and turnout specific to community colleges.

October 4- The Power of Community Colleges in Voter Registration

October 11- The Power of Community Colleges in Voter Education

October 18- The Power of Community Colleges in Voter Turnout

National Voter Registration Day

On September 25, 2018, the 14 community colleges who are part of Engage the Election Project registered over 1,600 new voters as part of National Voter Registration Day.

National Voter Registration Day is a national holiday celebrating our democracy.  It was first observed in 2012 and has been growing in popularity every year since. National Voter Registration Day seeks to create broad awareness of voter registration opportunities to reach tens of thousands of voters who may not register otherwise.  Held on the fourth Tuesday of September, National Voter Registration Day will take place on September 24, 2019.

This work is immensely impactful and represents just part of the good work done by community colleges and Campus Compact members toward registering new voters on National Voter Registration day and beyond in advance of registration deadlines.  Click HERE to read about the results of this work.

Resources

The following is a set of resources from our partners, friends, and allies concerning electoral engagement on college campuses: