Lake Michigan College recognized for excellence in student voter registration and turnout during 2022 midterm elections

BENTON HARBOR, MICH. – The ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge (ALL IN) has recognized Lake Michigan College for its nonpartisan engagement efforts that fostered high levels of student voter engagement in the 2022 midterm elections.  

 

LMC received the Gold Campus Award for Excellence in Student Voter Engagement, reflecting its commitment to ensuring that voter participation is a defining feature of campus life. This is in addition to the recently announced Highly Established Action Plan Seal LMC received from ALL IN for the 2024 election cycle. 

 

The Gold Campus Award recognizes a voting rate of 40-49% among students who are eligible to vote. LMC’s 2022 voting rate was 41.5 percent, up from 35 percent during the 2018 midterms. LMC’s rate compares to an overall rate of 30.6 percent for all higher education institutions and 29 percent for community colleges nationwide.  

 

“Through on-campus voter registration drives, guest speakers, and collaboration with the non-partisan League of Women Voters of Berrien/Cass County, we bring civic participation to forefront with our students,” stated Tiffany Bohm, LMC Political Science Instructor. “We are pleased to see the results of those efforts and will continue to encourage our students to be well-informed participants in our country’s democratic process.” 

 

LMC was recognized alongside more than 500 campuses using data from the National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement (NSLVE) out of Tufts University, which found that in 2022 colleges and universities had the second-highest voter turnout among students in a midterm election since NSLVE began measuring this data. 

 

More than 1,060 institutions enrolling more than 10 million students take part in the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge. The organization seeks to make participation in local, state, and federal elections a social norm and substantially increase the number of college students who are engaged during and between elections, not just at the polls. ALL IN works with college campuses to make civic engagement a part of the culture and curriculum so students graduate with the knowledge, skills, behaviors, and values needed to be an informed and active citizen.