UB Highly Ranked in Washington Monthly's 2020 List of Best Colleges for Student Voting
September 13, 2020
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The University of Baltimore is cited in Washington Monthly's rankings of Best Colleges for Student Voting in 2020. The newly released list, ordered by total voter registration, shows UB in 11th place nationally. Of all the public and private institutions included in the ranking, UB has the 11th highest voter registration.
The University of Baltimore is the only campus in the nation to receive the gold seal award from the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge for its 70.9 percent voter participation rate. UB also received the platinum seal in 2019 for its 59.1 percent voting rate in the 2018 midterm elections. UB was recognized as "best in class" for having the highest voting participation rate among medium, public, four-year institutions, nationwide.
"The University of Baltimore has enjoyed a high rate of voter turnout and participation over the years, and that is a credit to our students—adult learners who are serious about their education and their role as citizens," says Anthony Butler, director of UB's Rosenberg Center for Student Involvement. "With both a law school and Maryland's only college dedicated to public affairs, UB features many academic programs, activities and organizations that attract students who are interested in civic leadership. It's an important part of our community and our culture. We look forward to meeting or exceeding our voting numbers in the coming 2020 election."
Read about UB's voting numbers for 2014 and 2018, as provided by the Tufts University Institute for Democracy & Higher Education's National Study of Learning, Voting and Engagement.
Washington Monthly's coverage of student voting notes some positive trends in student participation in the electoral process: "The good news is that despite the pandemic, young people are unusually fired up about the 2020 contest. A recent poll by Harvard's Institute of Politics shows that more 18- to 29-year-olds say they plan to vote in 2020 than said they planned to vote when asked in surveys conducted at similar times in 2016 and 2018."
Read Washington Monthly's 2020 rankings for Best Colleges for Student Voting.