More UMBC Students Voted in 2020 Than in Previous Years

The National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement’s latest report shows a surge in U.S. student voter participation in 2020, a trend that includes UMBC students. David Hoffman, Ph.D. ’13, language, literacy, and culture (LLC) and director of the Center for Democracy and Civic Life, stated, “In addition to our 69.2% voting rate for eligible students, it's exciting to see that 83.9% of UMBC’s registered students voted in 2020–a notable jump from both 2016 and 2018 and in line with the national trend. Our greatest gains were among undergraduate students.”

In 2020, UMBC placed ninth nationwide in the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge voting pledge competition. More than 600 colleges and universities participate in the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge, which encourages college students to pledge to vote based on evidence that when people make public pledges, they are more likely to follow through. Learn more about the Center’s election programming, which supports UMBC community members in embracing civic involvement as an everyday, lifelong commitment, in their annual report and in UMBC News.