The Students Learn Students Vote (SLSV) Coalition applauds the Biden-Harris Administration for once again demonstrating its commitment to promoting voting access and furthering the ability of all eligible Americans to participate in our democracy.
We launched the SLSV Coalition in 2016 because we knew that institutions that touch our everyday lives – from the Federal government to local community colleges – could do more to ensure that voting and registering to vote were more accessible. That’s why it is especially exciting to see the Administration commit to specific agency steps to achieve the priorities laid out in its March 7th Executive Order promoting access to voting.
In particular, the Department of Education’s commitment to provide a toolkit of resources and strategies for increasing civic engagement at the elementary school, secondary school, and higher education levels – and to remind educational institutions of their existing obligation – is a vital step toward helping all young people develop lifelong identities as voters.
Further, the Department of the Interior’s plans to work with the Bureau of Indian Education and Tribal Colleges and Universities to provide tribal students with information on registering and voting is an important measure in addressing some of the systemic barriers that make voting more difficult for members of America’s tribal communities.
If implemented, these measures will help sustain the long-term health of our democracy, and re-affirm the Administration’s support for the 26th Amendment, which lowered the national voting age to 18 and banned age discrimination in voting, and celebrated its 50th anniversary this year. The measures are made all the more exciting by their announcement on National Voter Registration Day, as Vice President Kamala Harris visits college campuses to encourage students to register to vote and participate in our democracy.
We look forward to working with agencies across the Administration to help implement these important commitments, and to make voting more accessible for every eligible student in the US.\
About the SLSV Coalition
The Students Learn Students Vote (SLSV) Coalition is the national hub and largest nonpartisan network in the United States dedicated to increasing college student voter participation. The Coalition convenes and connects partners, campuses, and students with each other and with resources and programming towards achieving a vision of ensuring that every student has easy and equal access to participate in every election. They use data, relationships, celebration, and easy-to-follow planning structures, to help campus and local leaders register and turnout more student voters every year. The SLSV Coalition is a project of the National Conference on Citizenship (NCoC), a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization. NCoC is strictly nonpartisan, and does not support or oppose any candidate or party.
