BLUE BELL — The ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge recently recognized Montgomery County Community College for having the highest voter turnout for a two-year institution in Pennsylvania in the 2022 midterm elections.
MCCC also earned ALL IN’s Gold Seal based on its campus voting rate of 40-49% as shared in the National Study of Learning, Voting and Engagement report, a research study of the Institute for Democracy in Higher Education at Tufts University. The voting rate is determined by the percentage of eligible students who voted on Election Day.
In addition, MCCC earned ALL IN’s Highly Established Action Plan Seal for the 2024 election cycle. This award recognizes MCCC’s overall strategic plan to increase voter engagement. To receive this recognition, the plan received at least 31.5 of 36 possible points based on the Strengthening American Democracy Action Planning Guide Rubric, which is used to assess such areas as leadership, commitment, goals, and strategy, among others. ALL IN is a national nonpartisan initiative of Civic Nation, a 501(c)(3) organization.
“The awards recognize MCCC’s strong commitment and ongoing efforts to promote the importance of civic engagement,” said Mike Bettinger, director of government and external relations. “We encourage students to engage and take action to make a difference at all levels of government.”
For the 2022 election, 69 percent of MCCC’s total number of students were registered to vote, and 63 percent of the registered students voted. MCCC’s voting rate was 13 percent higher than the national average of all institutions participating in the NSLVE report. Approximately 83 percent of MCCC students voted in person, and 15 percent voted by mail or absentee ballot with the remaining voting by provisional ballot.
MCCC collaborates with a number of external groups to assist students in registering to vote, including Montgomery County Office of Voter Services, NextGen America, The League of Women Voters, and The Woori Center. Efforts are made to incorporate registration tables within student events, including Weeks of Welcome and Spring Fling.
MCCC has been designated a Voter Friendly Campus for several consecutive years by the Campus Vote Project in recognition of its work to register students and provide resources for voter engagement. MCCC President Vicki Bastecki-Perez is a signatory to the ALL IN Higher Education Presidents’ Commitment to Full Voter Participation.
The ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge empowers colleges and universities to achieve excellence in nonpartisan student democratic engagement. MCCC was recognized alongside more than 500 campuses using data from the NSLVE, which found that colleges and universities had the second-highest voter turnout among students in a midterm election since NSLVE began measuring this data.
“The ALL IN Awards were created to celebrate nonpartisan democratic engagement and the outstanding campus voter registration and turnout rates achieved by our ALL IN campuses. Ahead of the 2024 elections, ALL IN campuses are ready to build on the momentum from 2022 to ensure their communities are ready to make an even bigger impact this fall,” said Jennifer Domagal-Goldman, executive director of the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge. “ALL IN is proud to celebrate and honor top-performing campuses, like MCCC, who demonstrate that nonpartisan student voter engagement is possible and effective.”
More than 1,060 institutions enrolling more than 10 million students participate in the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge, which supports colleges and universities in achieving excellence in nonpartisan student voter engagement.
