Category Archives: TurboVote

Need Help Promoting TurboVote? Go Straight to the Top

With the window on registering to vote in the Nov. 4 election about to close, TurboVote implementers at St. Petersburg College are scurrying to reach out to students who are not yet aware of the electronic platform that makes registration a matter of a few keystrokes. Through Sam Novey, TurboVote’s Director of Partnerships, they learned of a strategy employed by the University of Florida to engage more Gators in the voting process. The strategy: a letter to all students from President Bernie Machen.

Since good ideas are not patentable, they took the idea up the administrative ladder at St. Petersburg College and asked: Can we do something like this? The answer? Yes.

SPC President Bill Law readily agreed to write a letter to all students, and it was sent out on Sept. 11. Fellow Civics Initiative stakeholders, feel free to take this idea to your president. The text of Dr. Law’s letter follows:

Dear SPC Student,

On Tuesday, Nov. 4, Florida voters will elect new leaders and make decisions about key issues that impact our lives and communities. As president of St. Petersburg College, I urge you to participate in a process that is integral to our democracy and to our nation as a whole. I care a great deal that students participate and educate themselves on key issues. We don’t endorse any candidates but we strongly endorse participation in the process.

If you have not yet registered to vote, I am excited to share with you that SPC is making the process easy for you. We have partnered with TurboVote, a “one-stop-shop” that enables you to quickly register online to vote or request an absentee ballot from your local election authorities.

Once registered, you will receive a completed national voter registration or absentee ballot request form by mail along with a pre-addressed, pre-stamped envelope to your local election authority. TurboVote also will send out email and text reminders to help you remember the approaching election deadlines.

To register, complete the easy steps at https://spcollege.turbovote.org/.

According to the 2011 Florida Civic Health Index, fewer than half of Florida’s millennials were registered to vote in the 2010 midterm elections. Of those who were registered, only one-in-five voted. Be someone who commits to making a difference by voting this election.

For more information, contact David Klement, executive director, Institute for Strategic Policy Solutions at 727-319-7087 or klement.david@spcollege.edu.

Thank you for registering and voting in the general elections on Nov. 4. I’ll look forward to seeing you at the polls!

Sincerely,
Bill Law
President, St. Petersburg College

The Initiative’s First Project: TurboVote Launching across FCS

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As the Florida College System opens the fall 2014 semester on Aug. 18, Implementation Teams across the system have plans in place for the launch of TurboVote. Twenty-seven of the 28 colleges in the FCS are participating in TurboVote, a non-artisan, non-profit digital platform that makes voter registration – and voting – easy for students. The system is especially helpful to incoming freshmen with no previous voting experience and little if any knowledge of or interest in civic affairs as they enter college for the first time.

Implementation Teams identified at each college are employing a variety of strategies for making students aware of the TurboVote opportunity. These include embedding a link into the online registration process, sending emails to all students, staffing sign-up tables at Welcome Back receptions that typically greet students at the start of a new semester, engaging Student Government Association officers to spread the word, and recruiting faculty members to encourage students to go to the TurboVote link and register.

Participation in TurboVote is being offered free to participating members of the Florida College System. When TurboVote offered FCS a 50 percent discount on the $1,000 per college up-front fee to cover TurboVote’s services, the Institute for Strategic Policy Solutions at St. Petersburg College offered to cover the fees for the entire system for the first year. The additional charge of $1.17 per student registrant, which covers cost of postage to mail absentee ballots, was picked up by TurboVote’s foundation sponsors..

Watch this space for updates after the fall rush winds down, and click here to read more about it.

Read related blog: “FCS is TurboVote’s First System-Wide Partner”

David Klement, Executive Director
Institute for Strategic Policy Solutions

FCS Is TurboVote’s First System-Wide Partner

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I wanted to share some big news I’ve written about in more detail on the Democracy Fund blog.

The Florida College System (FCS) is bringing civic engagement to over 850,000 students by partnering with TurboVote at 27 state and community colleges. This is the first system-wide project of the FCS Civic Literacy Initiative, and made possible by the Institute for Strategic Policy Solutions at St. Petersburg College.

It’s a big deal. FCS is how most Floridians access higher education—65 percent of the state’s high school graduates begin their postsecondary education at one of the system’s colleges.

And this is no summer fling. When TurboVote partners with a school, we provide them with their own custom website and work with administrators to institutionalize voter engagement into their student services for the long-term by integrating TurboVote with class registration, freshman orientation, and other school-wide student experiences.

As schools across Florida come together to bring TurboVote to their campuses, they’re not only introducing the next generation to our democracy, they’re also serving as a model for the rest of the country.

Yours,
Seth Flaxman of the TurboVote team

The Initiative’s First Project: TurboVote Is Coming

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There is great news to kick off this website and newsletter debut: TurboVote is coming to the Florida College System this fall – just in time for the 2014 elections! TurboVote is a non-partisan, non-profit digital platform that makes voter registration – and voting – easy for students, especially incoming freshmen with no previous voting experience and little if any knowledge of or interest in civic affairs as they enter college for the first time. Because higher education is required by amendments to the Higher Education Act to make a good-faith effort to distribute voter registration forms to each enrolled student, an online service like TurboVote makes it relatively simple for the 28 colleges in FCS to fulfill that mandate.

And more great news: Participation in TurboVote will be offered free to participating members of the Florida College System. Normally, there is a $1,000 per college fee up-front to cover TurboVote’s services, plus a charge of $1.17 per student who registers to vote. This fee covers cost of postage to mail absentee ballots.

However, TurboVote has offered FCS a package deal: a 50 % discount for enrolling the entire system. The FCS Council of Presidents has accepted the offer. Thus a $28,000 up-front enrollment fee of $1,000 each for 28 colleges was reduced to $14,000. And that was reduced to zero when this Institute agreed to cover this cost as part of its statewide mission. At the same time, TurboVote agreed to use part of its grant from the Knight Foundation to cover the postage costs.

So, TurboVote is available to all 28 colleges in the FCS at no cost! We are rolling out this project as we speak, so continue to watch this space for updates and click here to read more about it.

David Klement, Executive Director
Institute for Strategic Policy Solutions