Colorado State University has recently won a Gold Seal from the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge for its work in increasing the nonpartisan student voting shown in the 2020 presidential election.

A Gold Seal indicates that 70% to 80% of the student body voted during the election.

This year, ALL IN chose competitors from their State Campus Voting Challenges and also awarded CSU with the 2021 ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge’s 2021 Best Action Plan Award within the Colorado competition.

According to the National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement 2020 national report, college and university student voting reached a record high during the 2020 election. Student voting jumped from 53% total student engagement in 2016 to nearly 66% by the 2020 election.

CSU’s voting rate of 76.4% grew around 7% between each election, according to the report.

“CSU students have always been an engaged group when it comes to sharing their voice by participating in elections,” said Jen Johnson, who is the director for the Student Leadership, Involvement, and Community Engagement. “As an institution, we do what we can to reduce barriers to voter registration voting, but it falls to the students to hand in their completed ballots. We are very proud of our students and their engagement with the electoral process.”