Voter Resources
The Office of Student Leadership, Involvement, and Civic Engagement (SLICE) empowers students to meaningfully engage in civic discourse, through community-wide partnerships like Democracy Day and shared resources. Voting is an important step to be civically involved with your community, therefore we provide you with voter registration tools for you to be ready to cast your ballot.
CMU's Voter Registration API
In efforts to ease the voter registration process and increase the accuracy of registrant's information, CMU has created an in-house application in partnership with the Pennsylvania Department of State. This allows for undergraduate and graduate students to either register or update their information in Pennsylvania. This application is a safe and secure process, and all submitted information is passed directly to the state.
Pennsylvania voter registration closes Monday, October 21, 2024.
If an undergraduate or graduate student wishes to register or update their information for a non-Pennsylvania state, they can access that information via CMU TurboVote. The deadline for non-Pennsylvania Voter Registration will vary per state.
Confirm Your Voter Registration Status
Check your Pennsylvania voter registration status. If you submitted a voter registration application for Pennsylvania but your registration does not show up, then check your voter application status. Registered to vote elsewhere? Confirm your voter registration status.
Know Your Polling Place
To learn where your polling place is located, check out the Vote.org Polling Place Locator. Please make sure to check your polling place prior to election day. CMU residence halls and fraternity and sorority housing vote at four different locations.
Take your ID Card
Every state has different voter ID rules. VoteRiders provides voter ID assistance so that every American can cast a ballot that counts. Visit VoteRiders' Voter ID Guide shares the latest information about what's required for voting in person or by mail.
Get to Know Your Ballot
Ballotpedia connects people with politics by changing the way they access the information they need to be informed about federal, state, and local politics. Their content includes neutral, accurate, and verifiable information on government officials and the offices they hold, political issues and public policy, elections, candidates, and the influencers of politics. View a sample ballot.
Learn More About Your Candidates
The League of Women Voters Educational Fund has created a voter guide to learn more about the candidates on your ballot. Learn where candidates running for office in your community stand on the issues.
Campus Vote Project
The Campus Vote Project creates state-based student voter guides and answers questions specific to college students. For example, “will registering to vote with my campus address affect my driver’s license or car registration?”
Election Day FAQs
SLICE has prepared a document with frequently asked questions (FAQ) related to Election Day! Please use this Election Day FAQ as your guide for navigating election day.
Troubles with Voting?
For issues voting and ballot issues contact your local election office. You can also learn more about election protection.
Become a Poll Worker
Support democracy by becoming a poll worker! Poll workers are paid for their training and work at the polls on election day.
The Responsible Voter's Guide to GenAI and Political Campaigning
Take action to support the integrity of the democratic process.
Resources for Faculty & Coaches
Join the Faculty Network for Student Voting Rights: The Network is comprised of a diverse group of faculty at all levels and at institutions throughout the United States. The Network invites any interested faculty, from teaching assistants and adjuncts to tenured professors, to join in founding nonpartisan national and state-level faculty networks to ensure student voting rights on and off-campus.
What if AI-generated deep fakes could be used to influence our upcoming elections?
Check out CMU's Block Center for Society and Technology's The Responsible Voter's Guide to GenAI and Political Campaigning for more information on generative AI (GenAI) and the democratic process.
Upcoming Events
News
Read about the work CMU students are doing to help mobilize voter engagement efforts on campus!
CMU Named a Most Engaged Campus for Student Voting
Carnegie Mellon was named a 2022 ALL IN Most Engaged Campus for College Student Voting by the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge. The ALL IN program recognizes participating institutions that worked to increase nonpartisan student voter registration, education and turnout, and ensure equitable access to the polls for their campus community.
The Most Engaged Campuses for College Student Voting is part of ALL IN’s mission to advance voting efforts on college and university campuses across the country. This year’s honorees span 44 states and the District of Columbia and include a diverse group of institutions, including 94 Minority-Serving Institutions, seven HBCUs, 63 Hispanic-Serving Institutions and 68 community colleges. Learn more about the All IN Campus Democracy Challenge.
2022 NLSVE Report
CMU’s NLSVE reports continue to highlight students’ commitment to voting. In the 2020 presidential election Carnegie Mellon had an 8.8% increase in our voting rate from the 2016 election. CMU’s 2020 voting rate of 70.6% earned CMU a Gold Seal from the All In Campus Democracy Challenge. In the 2022 midterm election our student voting rate was 39.6%, a full 9% points higher than the ‘all institutions’ voting rate average. Read the Full Report [PDF]
Interested in Voter Engagement? Want to develop your leadership skills?
Anytime, anywhere - free access to 900 hours of Headspace content with Andrew ID to enroll
Election Anxiety: This article takes a deep dive into "election stress disorder," election anxiety, and how meditation can help.
Counseling and Psychological Services (CaPS) has created a Managing Election Stress Guide.
The All In Campus Democracy Challenge, which seeks to develop a nonpartisan democratic engagement action plan, granted CMU the Highly Established Action Plan Seal for the 2022 election. To receive this seal, participants must score at least 31.5 of 36 points according to the Strengthening American Democracy Action Planning Guide’s (SADG) Rubric, which assesses leadership, commitment, landscape, goals, strategy, reporting, and evaluation. It also takes into account the institution’s executive summary - an overview of a voting action plan - and the National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement, a report providing campuses with student registration and voting rates nationwide. Learn more about SADG’s Rubric and the Students Learn Students Vote Coalition (SLSV).
For the first time, the Campus Vote Project and NASPA designated Carnegie Mellon University a Voter Friendly Campus for the 2023-2024 year. CMU is among 22 universities in Pennsylvania that received this distinction for its creative ways to engage students in the voting atmosphere. To be considered, universities must turn in their action plan and submit a final report detailing voting data statistics. The NASPA program was established to “help institutions develop engagement action plans that coordinate administrators, faculty, and student organizations in civic and electoral engagement.” Learn more about NASPA and Voter Friendly Campuses.