'There Are Issues That I Care About': What Drives Civically Engaged Student Voters. Pre- and Post-Election Analysis of Arizona State University Student Voting Behavior and Attitudes

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35

Citizen Participation; Voting; Student Motivation; Political Attitudes; Student Attitudes; Student Behavior; Elections; College Students; Eligibility; Intention; Student Characteristics

Voting rates among Arizona State University (ASU) students have increased between regular term and midterm elections since 2012. Reports show that between the 2012 and 2016 presidential elections, ASU student voting rates increased from 47.8% to 58.7%. During the 2018 midterm election showed a large upward swing in voter turnout among ASU students compared to 2014, increasing from 19.0% to 41.5%. In both cases, the ASU voting rate sat above the turnout rate for all higher education institutions as a whole (50.4% and 39.1%, respectively). However young people tend to vote at lower rates than older individuals, and this is especially true in the United States. There are multiple proposed reasons why an age gap in voting exists. Wattenberg theorized that young people do not vote because they pay less attention to political news and overall have less interest in politics. Alternatively, some researchers have found that young people intend to vote at the same rates as adults but are much more likely to be derailed by barriers in the voting process, such as being unsure what documentation is needed to vote and uncertainty about how to fill out a ballot. This study seeks to better understand young voters' behavior by examining ASU students' motivations and attitudes around voting. Additionally, the study examines where young student voters get information related to voting processes and ballot issues in order to propose next steps and action efforts to increase voting rates and civic engagement among ASU students. [This research was supported by the Vox Populi Foundation.]

ERIC

2021

ED615095