Columbia Votes!

Columbia Votes! is an initiative begun by Associate Professor Sharon Bloyd-Peshkin to bring systematic, 50-state voting to Columbia College Chicago students. Based on the success of programs like NU Votes (the pioneer of this approach) and with the support of national organizations including the Students Learn Students Vote Coalition, Columbia Votes seeks to help every student learn about voting and assist them to register and vote in the location they choose: on-campus or back home.

We use the Ask Every Student model of engagement, a one-on-one approach that has proven more effective than any other. However, during the 2020 election, the pandemic forced us to help remotely.

We have also developed curricular modules that are being used at many other campuses, and state-by-state guides through the specifics of every state's registration and vote-by-mail processes.

Columbia Votes offers paid positions to student "voter registration geniuses," who assist their peers through the process. Positions are posted on Handshake, and inquiries should be directed to Sharon at speshkin@colum.edu. General questions can be directed to vote@colum.edu.

Columbia Votes is part of a larger goal of civic engagement and civic education here at Columbia College Chicago.

We invite you to contribute to the development of Columbia Votes by engaging with the Ideas and Let's Talk tools on this page. You can subscribe to this page to receive newsletters and/or reaching out to our team using the Who's Listening tool.

We are proud to be a co-designer campus with Ask Every Student, a partner with Students Learn Students Vote Coalition, and a member of the All-In Campus Democracy Challenge. Join us!