Big Sky Votes

We want to see an increase in voter registration at Weber State, as well as at other universities — including our sports rivals! That’s why we serve as the lead institution for the Big Sky Votes Challenge, where institutions in the Big Sky Conference work collectively to increase voter registration and voter turnout numbers at their schools by 10% between the 2020 and 2024 national elections.

This friendly competition allows participating schools to get recognition and awards for hitting their goals and improving their political engagement on campus.

To accomplish this, Big Sky Votes Challenge participants will set individual campus goals and action plans based on education, access, turnout and registration. Each school will choose an area of growth by major, and will work on improving the registration rate and turnout within that major. Schools will also choose a quantifiable area of growth within their campus plan, such as student-athlete engagement, campus voter registration programming (in-person or digital), creative marketing, etc.

Participating Campuses

As part of the Big Sky Votes Challenge, each participating campus commits to:

• Participate in the National Study of Learning, Voting and Engagement (NSLVE), which helps colleges and universities learn about their student voting habits. This data will be used to inform data-driven planning for improved nonpartisan voter registration, education, and turnout.
• Participate in the nonpartisan ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge.
• Name a campus coordinator (faculty or staff member) to serve as the primary contact for the Big Sky Votes partnership, lead the campus coalition and participate in Big Sky Votes planning calls.
• Establish a campus democratic engagement coalition composed of students, faculty and staff. Campuses might also choose to have local election officials and/or relevant community partners on their coalitions.
• Send at least two campus representatives to a Big Sky Votes Summit in Spring 2020 hosted by Weber State and fund the costs associated with their participation.

As lead institution for the project, Weber State commits to extra responsibilities like planning and hosting the Big Sky Votes Summit.