Dragons Demonstrate Fiery Voter Turnout

Drexel University was named an All In Most Engaged Campus for College Student Voting due to its efforts to increase nonpartisan voter turnout and education during the 2022 midterms. In Philadelphia’s Ward 24, where most Drexel students live, there was about a 38.3-percent voter turnout rate, which is similar to the national midterm turnout of about 40 percent. Student voter turnout will be released later via the National Study for Learning, Voting and Engagement.

In 2018 and 2020, Drexel was also designated an All In Gold Campus with student turnout rates of 40-49 percent and 70-79 percent, respectively.

Drexel Votes, which organized a voter registration drive on campus, and the Undergraduate Student Government Association (USGA) Civic Engagement Committee were instrumental in getting out the vote. The drive was useful not only in registering voters, but also helping voters check their status and learn how to change their address, Executive Director of Communications for Finance and Administrative Services Irene Tsikitas Lin said. 

“We made sure to raise visibility about Election Day,” Lin said. “It’s important that Dragons vote.” 

USGA civic engagement chair Vivek Babu worked on student-to-student outreach, and USGA worked to get a half-day on campus for the third year in a row. There were seven days of voter registration on campus, collaboration with the Lindy Center for Civic Engagement and Civic Influencers and even civic engagement opportunities outside of voting, including a neighborhood clean-up.

“The constant presence of voter registration tabling as well as the push on social media by a number of student organizations helped eliminate the key barrier that students don’t have the time or resources to feel like they can become an informed voter and have their vote really matter, so I think that’s what really counted,” Babu said.