Geneseo's latest recognition for voter registration efforts comes from the National Voter Registration Day organization.
GENESEO, N.Y. – SUNY Geneseo is among the top 10 community partners recognized nationally by the National Voter Registration Day organization for the Center for Community’s efforts in collecting registrations during the 2017 Voter Registration Day. Geneseo was one of two colleges in the top 10.
The organization mobilized 2,851 organizations from the corporate, non-profit, government and community sectors from across the country to support the effort. Geneseo’s Center for Community ranked eighth among the 915 in the community partner category in the number of registrations collected. Nationally, the total effort yielded 124,290 new or updated voter registrations.
“Hats off to our Andrew Goodman Foundation student ambassadors Sarah Jane Phillips, Brian Ludemann and Patrick Buckley and the Voter Registration Task Force for making this happen,” said Tom Matthews, associate dean for leadership and service.
The United States celebrates National Voter Registration Day every year on the fourth Tuesday of September. In 2018, the date is Sept. 25.
It’s not the first time Geneseo has been recognized for efforts to encourage voter registration. The College was among 83 campuses in 23 states designated a “Voter-Friendly Campus” last spring by the national nonpartisan organizations Campus Vote Project (CVP) and NASPA-Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education.
Geneseo’s Task Force on Voter Registration and Engagement developed a voter registration and engagement plan, which was the foundation for the recognition. The plan included an ambitious student-driven voter registration effort to have new and transfer students complete voter registration forms and a voter education program. The effort resulted in an increased voting rate of 43 percent in 2012 to more than 80 percent in 2016.