Last week, 100 students, staff, and faculty from across North Carolina came together at the 2024 NC College Voter Summit to get energized and ready to mobilize their campuses for the upcoming election! The 9th annual Summit saw over 20 colleges and universities and 18 democracy organizations represented on September 13 at Elon University.
Student Leader Insights: Organizing for 2024 and Beyond
No one knows more about the power of the student vote than student leaders themselves. Attendees heard from panelists Jada Kelly (NC A&T State University), Charmaine Cheng (UNC-Chapel Hill), Shiva Rajbhandari (UNC-Chapel Hill), and Emily Stuart (Elon University) as they discussed the state of student voting on their campuses, the unique challenges they are facing, and their strategies for encouraging students and staying motivated in the midst of election season.
Making Every Action Count: Ways to Level Up your Campus Election Engagement
Rachel Gita Karp, Program Director for Unstoppable Voters with the Center for Artistic Activism led an engaging and inspiring session about how campuses can make their voter engagement actions as innovative and impactful as possible through boldness, creativity, and strategy.
Workshops
This year, attendees got to choose between nine workshops hosted by democracy organizations:
- Mobilizing your Friends for the General Election through Texting – ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge
- Messaging the #StudentVote in Polarized Times – Students Learn, Students Vote Coalition
- Protect Voters’ Rights: Be a County Board of Elections Monitor – League of Women Voters NC
- Show Up with Your Crew: Building Coalitions for Voter Engagement – Campus Vote Project
- Activism in Ink: Advocating through Op-Eds – Campus Vote Project
- Voter ID in NC and Know Your Ballot Parties – VoteRiders
- #VoteReady: Digital Tools for Campus Leaders – You Can Vote
- Activism Training – Common Cause NC
- NC-ourage to Vote: Powering Up Your Campus Engagement (Campus Admin Session) – Campus Vote Project
VoteTank: Take a Bite into Civic Action
Students put their bold thinking to work in a collaborative competition designed to get students to think outside the box about voter education, mobilization, and advocacy. Teams had to quickly put their heads together to design an innovative initiative that would engage students on their campus to vote. After crafting a perfect pitch, teams presented their ideas to a panel of Sharks who scored the teams and awarded prizes.
See the winning presentations in the photo gallery below!
Winning Presentations: #BreakTradition
Honorable Mentions: Spilling the Tea & Dunk the Vote
Prizes, Games, and Awards
What’s on your Ballot?
The Summit kicked off by asking attendees to put their down-ballot voting knowledge to work! Tables were assigned an impact area (like public health, housing, or the economy), and worked together to find out how different offices could have a real impact. Tables each assigned a polished reporter to persuade everyone else in the room why this office mattered to their community, and why they should vote!
Summit Spirit Cup
Over the course of the day, campuses were competing again each other to earn points towards the coveted Summit Spirit Cup! By posting on social media, winning games during the day, or repping their campus pride, students could collect points for their campus. Congratulations to the winning campuses!
4 year: Appalachian State University
2 year: Rowan-Cabarrus Community College
NC Campus Voting Challenge Awards
The NC Campus Voting Challenge is a nonpartisan recognition program for higher education institutions in North Carolina. Based on data from NSLVE in 2022, awards were given to the campuses with the highest campus voter turnout, most improved campus voter turnout, and highest student voter registration rate. NC Campus Engagement is facilitating this voting challenge in collaboration with the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge and You Can Vote.
Congratulations to the winners!
Highest Voter Turnout:
4-year: Meredith College
2 year: Davidson-Davie Community College
Highest Voter Registration:
4-year: UNC Asheville
2-year: Davidson-Davie Community College
Most Improved Voter Turnout:
4-year: Meredith College
Thank you to Elon University and all the folks here who supported the Summit, including catering, Event and Space Management, and the Moseley Center staff. We also want to acknowledge our photographer, Ethan Wu.
Extra special thanks to the 2024 Summit Planning Team!
ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge – Olivia Antigua
Civic Influencers – Anna CubbageVoteRiders- Jenny McKenney
Equality NC – Brennan Lewis
Campus Vote Project – Amanda LaRoche & Shakeyla Ingram
NC Conservation Network – Peter Walz & Kristen Rhodes
NCPIRG – Leigh-Anne Cole
Common Cause NC – Jazmyne Abney, Destiny Jordan & Shi’Anne Caldwell
NC Campus Engagement – Leslie Garvin & Sam Delap
You Can Vote – Kate Fellman & Cherie Witter
League of Women Voters NC – Jennifer Rubin & Regan Aduddell
Duke University – Chloe Decker (student representative)
