Campus by Campus Breakdown at Minnesota Community and Technical Colleges
While the voting rate at 2-year community colleges was lower than private institutions and 4-year public institutions, we did see some significant increases at a number of 2-year institutions that mirror the increases experienced by 4-year institutions. The voting rate for these institutions was 43.6%, a significant increase from the 2014 election by 16.2 points. The change in the voting rate for individual institutions varied from an increase of 29.6% to a decrease of 5.0%.
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Table 5 |
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2018 Voting Rate |
2016 Voting Rate |
2014 Voting Rate |
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|
1 |
Normandale Community Colleg |
54.8% |
1 |
Anoka-Ramsey Community College |
65.0% |
1 |
Rainy River Community College |
35.3% |
|
2 |
Inver Hills Community College |
53.4% |
2 |
Anoka Technical College |
63.2% |
2 |
Mesabi Range College |
34.1% |
|
3 |
Minneapolis College |
52.8% |
3 |
Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College |
62.7% |
3 |
MN West Community and Technical College |
32.7% |
|
4 |
Century College |
50.4% |
4 |
Inver Hills Community College |
62.7% |
4 |
Central Lakes College |
32.4% |
|
5 |
Anoka Ramsey Community College |
50.0% |
5 |
Normandale Community College |
62.7% |
5 |
Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College |
32.4% |
|
6 |
St. Paul College |
48.2% |
6 |
Pine Technical College |
62.2% |
5 |
Riverland Community College |
31.3% |
|
7 |
Riverland College |
48.0% |
7 |
Central Lakes College |
61.0% |
7 |
Pine Technical College |
31% |
|
8 |
North Hennepin |
60.5% |
8 |
Alex Technical College |
60.5% |
8 |
Ridgewater College |
29.6% |
|
9 |
CLC |
45.2% |
9 |
Dakota County Technical College |
60.5% |
9 |
Hibbing Community College |
29.5% |
|
10 |
Anoka Tech |
44.4% |
10 |
Century College |
60.0% |
10 |
Dakota County Technical College |
29.1% |
When that data is explored campus by campus, five community colleges in Minnesota had a voting rate of 50% or higher during the 2018 election. The highest voting rate came from Normandale Community College at 54.8% and the lowest participation rate was at Rainy River College at 29.3%. The high voting rate at Normandale correlates with a high percentage of registered student voters on campus. This is additional evidence that the best way to increase student voting rates is to encourage voter registration. If students are registered to vote, then they will vote. The colleges that have the highest voting rate all have registered and voted rates of 70% or higher.
Six colleges improved their voting rate by over 20 points (Table 6) and two of the colleges mirrored voting rate change seen at the University of Minnesota, which had the highest voting rate of any 4-year public university. All these colleges had robust student-led voter engagement activities on their campus, as demonstrated by the number of voter registrations and pledges collected on these campuses and institutional support from faculty, staff, or administrators, In fact, some campuses created committees to support the civic engagement activities on their campus, a best practice identified by the Students Learn Students Vote Coalitions.
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Table 6 |
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|
|
Voter Participation Rate |
|
Minneapolis College |
29.6% |
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Normandale |
28.4% |
|
Inver Hills |
25.5% |
|
Century |
25.2% |
|
St. Paul College |
25.0% |
|
Anoka Ramsey College |
22.5% |
|
North Hennepin |
21.7% |
Case Study - Saint Paul College
During the 2016 election, Saint Paul College saw one of the largest declines in student voting rates from the 2012 to 2016 election for Minnesota community colleges. Early in the fall of 2018, LeadMN and a faculty member from the college convened a group to support way to improve democratic engagement.
The group launched an effort to register students to vote in classes in partnership with the faculty union. In addition, faculty members and student leaders created mock voting experiences for students to experience what voting was like and help them find their polling locations on Election Day.
And finally, a partnership with the Ramsey County election office brought a pop-up early voting location to the St. Paul campus. This was the only one located on a community college campus. The election site brought students into a room that helped them be prepared for voting by checking to see if they were registered, view a sample ballot to see who they were voting for, look up information on the candidates, and assisted them to register to vote if they were not previously registered. This event helped over 250 students to vote, which boosted overall student voter turnout at Saint Paul College by five percentage points. The fun environment made the voting experience enjoyable and will likely create lifelong vote
Campus by Campus Breakdown at Minnesota Public Universities
The voting rate for public colleges and universities in Minnesota was just under 5 points higher than it was for community and technical colleges. The voting rate for these institutions was 48.3%, a significant increase from the 2014 election by 22.8 points. The change in the voting rate for individual institutions varied from an increase of 29.1% to 20.2%.
It is surprising how close the voting rates are between University of Minnesota - Twin Cities and Metropolitan State University. These campuses’ student bodies are dramatically different as demonstrated by the fact that Metropolitan State has three times as many Pell-eligible students enrolled compared to the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities. With such a large number of lowincome students, it would be expected that the voting rate would be much lower at Metropolitan State, but that is not the case. This warrants further research as to why the voting rate at Metropolitan State is so much higher.
After those two institutions, there is a significant gap between the next group of public universities. Outside of Metropolitan State University, the other Minnesota State Universities have a lower voting rate than nine other community colleges in Minnesota.
2018
|
2018 Voting Rate |
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|
|
Voter Participation Rate |
Improvement from 2014 Election |
|
University of Minnesota - Twin Cities |
58.7% |
+29.0% |
|
Metropolitan State |
58.0% |
+22.5% |
|
University of Minnesota - Morris |
51.4% |
+20.2% |
|
University of Minnesota - Duluth |
48.2% |
+28.3% |
|
Minnesota State University - Mankato |
46.2% |
+24.3% |
|
Winona State University |
44.0% |
+25.1 |