UC Undergraduate Voting

Background

As the November 2020 general election approaches, college students and alumni across the nation–especially with the University of California–will be preparing to make their voices heard. This dashboard explores the voting behavior of UC students from 2012 through 2018, using data from the National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement (NSLVE).

You can learn more about student voting and campus political climate in this topic brief. 

NSLVE data

Launched in 2013, the National Study of Learning, Voting and Engagement (NSLVE) is an initiative of Institute for Democracy and Higher Education (IDHE) at Tufts University's Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life. The NSLVE reports voter registration and voting rates based on matching institutions’ enrollment records submitted to the National Student Clearinghouse with publicly available voting databases compiled by Catalist. Note that the NSLVE data adjust for voter eligibility using IPEDS data, but are unable to consistently adjust for certain types of students who are ineligible to vote, and also may make specific adjustments for FERPA-blocked student records. For more information on the NSLVE methodology and data considerations, please visit https://idhe.tufts.edu/nslve. 

UCOP compiled data from NSLVE reports prepared for UC campuses. The UC systemwide data reported in this dashboard include the below campuses based on data availability. Note that the data do not include do not include UC Riverside for the 2018 election, and some specific statistics, such as voting rates by academic discipline, were unavailable for certain campuses.

Institute for Democracy & Higher Education: National Study of Learning, Voting and Engagement. (2019). 2012 and 2016 reports for University of California, Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, and Santa Cruz. Medford, MA. 

Institute for Democracy & Higher Education: National Study of Learning, Voting and Engagement. (2019). 2014 and 2018 report for University of California, Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, San Diego, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, and Santa Cruz. Medford, MA.