Madison Reporter

The ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge, a national nonpartisan initiative, recognized the University of Wisconsin–Madison with several awards for student voting in the 2022 midterm election. These accolades included the greatest overall turnout in the 2022 Big Ten Voting Challenge.

Additionally, ALL IN honored UW–Madison for achieving the highest student voter registration and voter turnout among four-year colleges in Wisconsin. The university was certified as a platinum campus for its level of student voter engagement during the 2022 midterm elections.

Voter turnout among UW–Madison students in 2022 was reported at 55.8 percent, a slight decrease from 56 percent in the 2018 midterm elections. This rate is significantly higher than the national voting rate of college students in 2022, which stood at 30.6 percent according to the National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement (NSLVE).

UW–Madison has been participating in the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge since 2016 as part of its commitment to nonpartisan civic education on campus. Student voting outreach and education at UW are coordinated by BadgersVote, a partnership between various campus units including the Morgridge Center for Public Service, Madison City Clerk’s Office, Associated Students of Madison, University Relations, Strategic Communication, and Student Affairs.

“I’m proud to see that so many of our eligible students chose to participate in the democratic process,” said John Zumbrunnen, faculty chair of the BadgersVote Coalition and senior vice provost for academic affairs and vice provost for teaching and learning. “These awards reflect our students’ continued leadership among their peers and their commitment to the hard work of democratic self-governance.”

UW–Madison was recognized alongside more than 500 campuses using data from NSLVE out of Tufts University. The study found that colleges and universities had their 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,” 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 UW–Madison who demonstrate that nonpartisan student voter engagement is possible and effective.”

More than 1,060 institutions enrolling over ten million students participate in the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge. This initiative supports colleges and universities striving for excellence in nonpartisan student voter engagement.