The California University and College Ballot Bowl will award campuses with the highest number of students registered to vote during Aug. 12 to Nov. 5 in a state-wide competition leading up to the 2024 Presidential General Election. It is hosted by the Students Vote Project under California Secretary of State (SoS) Shirley N. Weber.
“Students are a powerful force in the state of California,” Weber said in a news release on Aug. 12. “Registering to vote is just one piece to the puzzle. The real power lies in actually voting and making their voices heard.”
The Ballot Bowl aims to increase college students’ political participation and increase voter turnout among those ages 18 to 25 years old. California colleges — including over 200 schools and approximately 3 million undergraduate students between the California Community College (CCC, 1.9 million students), California State University (CSU, 402,000 students), University of California (UC, 233,000 students) and Association of Independent California Colleges and Universities systems (380,000 students) — will compete for awards in the Bowl.
There is one award for the “Overall Champion” and three winners in each of the following categories: number of students registered to vote, percentage of student body registered to vote and Civic and Voter Empowerment Action Plan (CVEAP) Score.
The CVEAP Score will be determined based on the school’s action plan, which must include an outline of initiatives that will be taken to facilitate voter registration, increase voter education and ensure ballot access for students. For many California campuses, the CVEAP is required by state law through the Student Civic and Voter Empowerment Act (2019), which was enacted to increase voter registration amongst college students. The CSU and CCC schools are required to submit a CVEAP to the California SoS under the act, and UC campuses are encouraged but not required to submit the plan.
In the Ballot Bowl, each school is eligible for only one award and each category has one winner per higher education system. Voter registration is tracked through online registration at the California Online Voter Registration website, TurboVote and castudentvote.org. Paper voter registration cards for students must be requested by each campus from the SoS office.
In the 2020 Presidential General Election Bowl, over 140 colleges participated and 82,000 students were registered. In the 2022 Midterm General Election Bowl, over 220 colleges participated and over 18,000 students were registered.
In the 2022 Ballot Bowl, UCLA won the UC award in the category for the highest number of students registered to vote with 817 students. Six UCs — UCLA, UCSB, UCB, UCSD, UCD and UCI — were among the top 10 universities with the highest number of students registered to vote, with UCI coming in 10th at 422 students registered.
Dee Statum, an education sciences student at UCI, currently serves as the campus action committee chair on the University of California Student Association 2024-2025 Student Board. Statum spoke on his goals of improving voter education and awareness for the upcoming year.
“This is the year to do so and just make sure that people are aware of, you know, who exactly are we voting for? I am concerned that we pay attention to these things,” Statum told New University.
Among UC students, voter turnout is on an upward trajectory at a rate exceeding that of the nationwide turnout in 2020. According to UC, the number of students who voted in the 2020 general election increased by 26%, compared to figures from 2016, and had a voter turnout of 76%. The 2020 National Study of Learning, Voting and Engagement by Tufts University assembled data representing 1,051 college campuses across the United States and found that the national college student voting rate increased by 13% in the 2020 election for a total voter turnout of 66%.
Despite increased voter turnout for college students, young voters from the ages of 18 to 24 had the lowest voter turnout of all age groups in the 2020 general election — less than half of those surveyed voted according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s November 2020 Current Population Survey. The second lowest turnout was 53.7% for the second youngest group aged 25 to 34 years.
| Age group | Reported registered (percent) | Reported voted (percent) |
| 18 to 24 years | 55.8 | 48.0 |
| 25 to 34 years | 61.0 | 53.7 |
| 35 to 44 years | 62.2 | 56.4 |
| 45 to 54 years | 67.2 | 62.4 |
| 55 to 64 years | 72.4 | 68.4 |
| 65 to 74 years | 75.9 | 73.0 |
| 75 years and over | 75.6 | 70.2 |
Data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey, November 2020
Tufts University Center for Information and Research on Civic Engagement (CIRCLE) designed CIRCLE Growing Voters, a “paradigm-shifting framework for developing the next generation of voters” based on their research of young voters and political activity. The framework identified gaps in education, outreach and modeling as contributors to low voter turnout, and suggested initiatives to decrease the intergenerational divide and provide opportunities for civic engagement to K-12 youth.
According to the 123-day report of registration, the total number of eligible registered voters on July 5, 2024 in California increased by over 1 million since July 3, 2020. However, the percentage of eligible voters registered to vote in California decreased from 83.49% in 2020 to 82.43% in 2024.
College students living away from home are eligible to register to vote using their home address or the address of their residence when they are attending school. The address a person registered under will indicate which county and state the vote cast is counted under, so it is not permitted to be registered at two addresses in the same election cycle. The address of registration will also determine which location-specific positions — such as representatives, senators and local officials — an individual votes on.
According to Statum, students should consider registering in districts where they feel their vote will “make a difference.”
Statum did not change their voter registration to California after beginning college at UCI, personally opting to instead stay registered in Minnesota.
“It was a great collective effort to keep our Minnesota blue,” Statum told New University. “So that’s where my vote counted and mattered. I knew that.”
As the 2024 election approaches, the last day to register to vote in California is Oct. 21, though voters can register for same-day registration and vote on a provisional ballot. Information regarding registration deadlines in other states is available through the U.S. Vote Foundation. Voter registration for UC students is available here.
Students may check the number of voter registrations at their participating campus online through weekly updates for the Ballot Bowl.
Alyse Billiard is a News Intern for the summer 2024 quarter. She can be reached at abilliar@uci.edu.
Edited by Kaelyn Kwon.
