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• Opinion: “New York Mandated On-campus Voting, Which Hasn’t Happened” Writes Jonathan Becker in the Times Union
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  Opinion: “New York Mandated On-campus Voting, Which Hasn’t Happened” Writes Jonathan Becker in the Times Union

  

  Photo by Joseph Nartey ’26
  

  Bard College Vice President for Academic Affairs, Professor of Politics, and Director of the Bard Center for Civic Engagement (CCE) Jonathan Becker urges the state, county boards of election, and college leaders to act now to give students ballot access for the impending November 2024 elections. In 2022, Governor Kathy Hochul passed legislation that mandates polling places on college campuses with 300 or more registered voters, yet a recent study released by CCE shows a negligible change in on-campus polling sites between the November 2022 elections and the November 2023 elections. “With the March 15 deadline for poll site assignments for this fall’s national election, the time is now to make the law’s promise a reality,” he writes in a commentary for the Times Union. He advocates for action on three levels—county boards of election should enforce the law, the state should identify means of enforcing the law, and leaders at colleges must demonstrate leadership by promoting student voter registration and, where the 300-registrant threshold is met, demanding a polling place on campus or in a suitable adjacent facility. “By acting together, we can empower youth, strengthen our democracy, and realize the promise of both this innovative New York state law and the 26th Amendment,” writes Becker.
  
  Further reading:
  College Leaders Urged to Act on Campus Voting Sites
  

  Read in the Times Union
  

  
  Post Date: 02-29-2024
  
• College Leaders Urged to Act on Campus Voting Sites
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  College Leaders Urged to Act on Campus Voting Sites

  

  A letter sent today to higher education leaders across New York State calls on them to help fulfill the promise of 2022 legislation designed to promote poll sites on college campuses across New York State. It urges them to take concrete steps prior to the March 15 State deadline for county Boards of Election to designate poll sites for the 2024 federal elections to ensure compliance with the 2022 law. The letter was sent by Jonathan Becker, Bard College Vice President for Academic Affairs, Professor of Politics, and Director of the Bard Center for Civic Engagement in cooperation with youth and voting rights advocates, including: the Andrew Goodman Foundation, Brooklyn Voters Alliance, Center for Law and Social Justice at Medgar Evers College, Citizens Union, Democracy Matters, GenVote, NYPIRG, NYVote/Next Generation Politics, Stand Up America, Partners for Campus-Community Engagement, and Vote Early New York.
  
  In April of 2022, New York State Governor Kathy Hochul (D), approved budgetary legislation that contained several pro-voting measures, including one that mandates poll sites on college campuses in New York with more than 300 registered voters. The legislation was hailed by voting rights activists who hoped it would enhance youth voter turnout and halt discriminatory practices directed at college-age voters by county Boards of Election.
  
  Unfortunately, as two recent studies show, state and local election administrators have not adequately prioritized or fully implemented this critical voter protection legislation: the vast majority of colleges in New York state do not have on-campus poll sites and there has been almost no change since the passage of this legislation.
  
  A team of Rutgers Law School clinical students, under the supervision of Prof. Yael Bromberg, Esq., surveyed Boards of Election about the availability of on-campus poll sites across New York State before and after the new mandate. The study found only a minor increase (2.2%) in the presence of on-campus poll sites between the 2018 and 2022 elections, when the law came into effect.
  
  Results of a follow-up study released today by the Bard College Center for Civic Engagement, conducted after the 2023 elections, also demonstrated little progress. The study, which involved surveys of Boards of Election and college administrators, found negligible change in on-campus poll sites from the period between the November 2022 elections and the November 2023 elections, an interval during which for the first time the law mandating poll sites on college campus would be in effect for the annual March 15 State deadline for assigning polling places. It found that since the legislation mandating poll sites has gone into effect, only three campuses could be identified that have added poll sites: Hostos Community College and Brooklyn College, which are part of the CUNY system, and Vassar College in Dutchess County, which only gained a poll site after litigation was initiated by a faculty member and supported by the League of Women Voters. The Madison County Board of Elections indicated that it is considering adding poll sites to Colgate University and SUNY Morrisville this round of poll assignments. In all, among the 65 private institutions who have more than 1,000 undergraduates enrolled, only fifteen institutions, or 25%, have on-campus poll sites. The four-year public institutions surveyed with more than 1,000 students have better rates at just under 50% for regular or early voting. Community Colleges which have on-campus residences have very low rates, at around 16%, though the lower density of residents helps explain the outcome. In all, 38% of public institutions surveyed have polling sites on campus.
  
  The results of these studies have led to this call to action. According to Bromberg, a voting rights attorney and lecturer at Rutgers Law School who is a leading national scholar of the 26th Amendment, “Much work remains to be done on the state level to ensure implementation, including the development of guidelines and best practices for college administrators and boards of elections, and the creation of a list of colleges covered by the law. Yet, the negligible increase of the availability of on-campus poll sites suggests that even basic education and awareness raising about the new mandate is necessary.”
  
  Jonathan Becker’s letter calls on college leaders to take action in four steps: 1) promote voter registration amongst students prior to the March 15 deadline; 2) reach out to student groups involved in voter registration, advocacy and related civic engagement efforts to encourage them to provide peer-led voter registration efforts in time for the March 15 deadline; 3) identify suitable poll sites on campus; 4) Consult with local Boards of Election to determine if there are 300 or more locally registered voters (students, faculty, and staff) residing on campus. The letter also asks that in cases where there are fewer than 300 registered voters on campus, institutional leaders encourage Boards of Election to, nonetheless, allow them to host a poll site on campus where feasible. 
  
  Becker said: “The Bard and Rutgers studies demonstrate that there is much work to do to meet the deadline in time for the federal elections this fall. Our letter asks college leaders to demonstrate that their commitment to civic engagement is not simply rhetorical. We have a responsibility to support student voting. American colleges consistently underline the link between education and citizenship, and there is no more important role of citizenship than to exercise the foundational right of voting.” Becker’s note to college leaders concludes: “Only by acting together can we realize the promise of the 2022 law and, more broadly, the 26^th Amendment.”
  
  "Despite significant progress at the state level modernizing New York elections, students continue to face unique access barriers that can frustrate their political participation" said Jarret Berg, Co-Founder and Voting Rights Counsel at Vote Early New York. "All stakeholders have a proactive role to play to ensure the voting process is clear and convenient for citizens who may be voting for the first time in 2024, from election officials tasked with designating and staffing poll sites on campuses, to the deans and administrators who host the polls and facilitate timely registration and ballot access, to the galaxy of campus groups who engage and mobilize their peers around civics."
  
  Generation Vote, which is devoted to tearing down barriers that prevent young people from participating in democracy stated:  "As the 2024 Presidential Election approaches, Generation Vote urgently calls upon colleges, universities, and the New York State Board of Elections to follow the law and identify eligible campuses for on-campus poll sites. Despite recent legislation mandating poll sites on campuses with over 300 registered voters, it is clear that there is more work to be done to make poll sites accessible for students and faculty members across New York State. In the lead-up to one of the most historic elections of our lifetime, we urge institutions of higher education and the State Board of Elections to proactively provide guidance and transparency as to the determination process for which campuses should be receiving on campus poll sites."
  

  Download the Study as PDF

  
  Post Date: 02-16-2024
  
• Bard Center for Civic Engagement Prepares Report on Poll Sites on College Campuses
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  Bard Center for Civic Engagement Prepares Report on Poll Sites on College Campuses

  

  “Little Has Changed: Poll Sites on College Campuses in New York State
  since the 2022 College Poll Mandate”
  
  A Report Prepared by the Bard Center for Civic Engagement[1]

  
  February 16, 2024

  
  New York State Context
  
  In April of 2022, New York State Governor Kathy Hochul (D) approved budgetary legislation that contained several pro-voting measures, including one that mandates poll sites on college campuses in New York with more than 300 registered voters. The legislation was hailed by voting rights activists who hoped it would enhance youth voter turnout and halt discriminatory practices directed at college-age voters by county Boards of Election.
  
  The need for legislation was great. Since the passage of the 26^th Amendment in 1971, which lowered the voting age from 21 to 18 and outlawed age discrimination in access to the ballot, Boards of Election across the country, including in New York State, have targeted college students, imposing onerous residency requirements, making discriminatory rules concerning voting addresses, and making poll sites inaccessible. Students have been discriminated against and/or intimidated across the State at both public and private institutions, from SUNY campuses in Stony Brook and New Paltz to private institutions like Marist and Skidmore.
  
  At Bard College in Dutchess County, students, faculty and administrators, led by the Bard Center for Civic Engagement and a student group, Election@Bard, have engaged in a quarter-century battle to ensure student voting rights, including four successful Federal and State lawsuits. The 2022 legislation was in part a result of the tumult at Bard and the egregious actions of the Dutchess County Board of Elections as outlined in two lawsuits filed in 2020 and 2021 to help bring a poll site to the Bard Campus.[2]
  
  National Context: Youth Voting
  
  The need to focus on youth voting remains acute. Despite some progress in recent years, the youth vote lags behind other demographics. While voting among 18-24 year-olds reached 51.8% in the 2020 elections, a jump from 43% in 2016, it remained more than 10% lower than among 25-44 year-olds and 20% lower than 45 to 65 year-olds. In the 2022 midterms, only 30% of 18-24 year-olds voted, nearly 15 points less than 25-44 year-olds and more than 35% less than those 65 and over. Registration numbers also lag: in 2022, a mere 52% of 18-24 year-olds registered to vote, 25% less than those 65 and older. Among the top reasons cited by 18-24 year-olds for not voting in 2022 is that they were “too busy,” had “conflicting work,” and/or that voting clashed with their “school schedule” (13.5%), or that they were “out of town” (28.4%).
  
  While many students vote absentee, this remains challenging for young people, as it requires them to take many steps in a convoluted process that is becoming more difficult as many states impose new restrictions. Moreover, an increasing number of states are imposing barriers to student voting.
  
  Poll Sites on College Campuses: The Bard Study
  
  Unfortunately, as two recent studies show, state and local election administrators have not adequately prioritized or fully implemented this critical voter protection legislation: the vast majority of colleges in New York state do not have on-campus poll sites and there has been almost no change since the passage of this legislation.
  
  A team of Rutgers Law School clinical students, under the supervision of Professor Yael Bromberg, Esq., a leading national scholar of the 26th Amendment, and a team of students from the Rutgers International Human Rights Clinic, surveyed Boards of Election about the availability of on-campus poll sites at colleges across New York State, before and after the new mandate.[3] The results were not promising, indicating that there had only been a minor increase (2.2%) in the presence of on-campus poll sites between the 2018 and 2022 elections, when the law came into effect. (The law allowed for reassignments of poll sites after the State’s annual March 15 deadline for poll site designation.)
  
  A study by the Bard Center for Civic Engagement conducted in late 2023 and early 2024 yielded similar results. The study focused on colleges with more than 1,000 undergraduate students and entailed three overlapping methods of determining whether campuses maintained and/or added poll sites: a survey of college administrators, a survey of Boards of Election, and cross-checking poll site addresses provided by Boards of Election. The need to have overlapping methodologies was rooted in the difficulties experienced in the attempt to obtain answers from county Boards of Election. Many do not have information on poll site locations on their websites, and those that do often do not indicate if the poll sites are on a college campus. Calls to Boards of Election often went unanswered. When interviewers did speak to Board representatives and requested basic public information, such as whether a poll site is situated on a college campus, answers were often withheld until a Freedom of Information Act request was filed. Even then, Freedom of Information Act requests often went unanswered.
  
  The study found that there was negligible change between the November 2022 elections and the November 2023 elections, an interval during which, for the first time, the law mandating poll sites on college campus would be in effect for the annual March 15 State deadline for assigning poll sites. In that time, the study identified only three instances in which public and private colleges campuses added poll sites: Hostos Community College and Brooklyn College, which are part of the CUNY system, and Vassar College in Dutchess County. However, the CUNY advancement might be more due a system initiative to promote voting and early voting sites than the new law. Moreover, Vassar only gained a poll site after litigation was initiated by a faculty member and supported by the League of Women Voters. This underlines the challenges and need for a more systemic response and institutional response. It should also be noted that one institution which had a poll site, St. Francis College in Brooklyn, has moved and its new campus does not yet have a poll site. Another, Keuka College, was offered an on-campus poll site according to Board of Elections officials, but demurred due to a perceived lack of appropriate space. The Madison County Board of Elections indicated that it is considering adding poll sites to Colgate University and SUNY Morrisville this round of poll assignments.
  
  The overall picture at college campuses remains bleak. Amongst 64 private institutions surveyed, only 25% have poll sites. If we lower the student population among private institutions to those with more than 600 undergraduates, the percentage of institutions with poll sites drops to only 22%. The four-year public institutions surveyed with more than 1,000 students have better rates, at just under 50% for regular or early voting. Community Colleges that have on-campus residences have very low rates, at around 16%, though the lower density of residents helps explain this. In all, 38% of public institutions surveyed have polling sites on campus. (For further information on the individual institutions surveyed, see Appendix I and II and III).
  
  Next Steps
  
  The situation suggests that further intervention is needed. The State should consider further modifications to the legislation to ensure greater compliance. A coalition of voting rights and good governance groups under the banner of Let NY Vote is engaging with this issue. One area of focus needs to be county Boards of Election: if it is onerous to obtain information as simple as whether a public poll site is situated on a college campus, it is well-nigh impossible to learn whether there are 300 or more registered voters on a college campus.
  
  As a part of an educational institution, the Bard College Center for Civic Engagement is reaching out to academic leaders across the State to intervene. Specifically, with the March 15 deadline for determining poll sites in New York State fast approaching, it is calling on the leadership of higher education institutions to engage with local Boards of Election to determine whether their campuses are eligible for a poll site. A quick checklist of actionable items includes: 1) promoting student voter registration prior to the March 15 deadline; 2) reaching out to student groups involved in voter registration, advocacy and related civic engagement efforts to encourage them to begin peer-led voter registration efforts prior to the March 15 deadline; 3) identifying suitable poll sites on campus; and 4) consulting with local Boards of Election to determine if there are 300 or more locally registered voters (students, faculty, and staff) residing on campus. In cases where there are fewer than 300 registered voters on campus, Bard is still encourages institutions to host a poll site on campus where feasible, in the hope that it will inspire higher turnout for on-campus voters. 
  
  Registering students to vote and encouraging poll sites on campus are among the most important things colleges can do in addressing this issue, but they are not the only things. We also encourage colleges to reach out to such as the Andrew Goodman Foundation, Partners for Campus-Community Engagement, and the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge to help expand your outreach and engagement efforts on this important issue. Only through such steps are we going to realize the promise of the 2022 law and, more broadly, the 26^th Amendment.
  
  For further information, go to: https://cce.bard.edu or email [email protected].
  
  
  
   

  Appendix I: Private Institutions

  
  List of private institutions which had an on-campus poll site in 2023:

  Bard College
  Canisius University
  Cornell University
  Iona University (only for early voting)
  Ithaca College
  Le Moyne College
  Manhattan College
  Marymount Manhattan College
  New York University
  Roberts Wesleyan University
  Rochester Institute of Technology
  Skidmore College
  Syracuse University
  The New School
  Vassar College
  Yeshiva University

  List of private institutions which did not have an on-campus poll site in 2023:

  Adelphi University
  Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences
  Alfred University
  Barnard College
  Clarkson University
  Colgate University
  Columbia College
  College of Mount Saint Vincent
  D’Youville University
  Daemen University
  Dominican University New York
  Fordham University
  Hamilton College
  Hartwick College
  Hobart and William Smith Colleges
  Hofstra University
  Keuka College
  Long Island University
  Manhattanville University
  Marist College
  Mercy University
  Molloy University
  Mount Saint Mary College
  Nazareth University
  New York Institute of Technology (NYIT)
  Niagara University
  Pace University
  Pratt Institute
  Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
  Russell Sage College
  Sarah Lawrence College
  Siena College
  St. Bonaventure University
  St. John Fisher University
  St. John’s University
  St. Joseph’s University, New York
  St. Lawrence University
  St. Thomas Aquinas College
  The Belanger School of Nursing
  The College of Saint Rose
  The Culinary Institute of America
  Touro University
  Trocaire College
  Union College
  University of Rochester
  Utica University
  Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology
  Wagner College

  Appendix II

  
  List of four-year public institutions which had an on-campus poll site in 2023:

  Baruch College
  Binghamton University
  Brooklyn College
  City College, Harlem
  Fashion Institute of Technology
  John Jay College of Criminal Justice
  Medgar Evers College
  New York City College of Technology at MetroTech
  NYS College of Human Ecology at Cornell
  Queens College
  Stony Brook University
  SUNY at Cortland
  SUNY at Geneseo
  SUNY at New Paltz
  SUNY at Oswego
  SUNY at Plattsburgh
  SUNY at Purchase
  University at Albany
  York College

  
  List of four-year public institutions which did not have an on-campus poll site in 2023:

  Alfred State College
  Buffalo State University
  College of Staten Island
  Lehman College
  SUNY at Brockport
  SUNY at Canton
  SUNY at Cobleskill
  SUNY at Delhi
  SUNY at Farmingdale
  SUNY at Fredonia
  SUNY at Morrisville
  SUNY at Old Westbury
  SUNY at Oneonta
  SUNY at Potsdam
  SUNY Maritime College
  SUNY of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University
  SUNY Polytechnic Institute, Marcy
  United States Merchant Marine Academy
  United States Military Academy
  University at Buffalo

  Appendix III. Public Institutions

  
  List of Community Colleges which had an on-campus poll site in 2023:
  
  Genesee Community College
  Hostos Community College
  Mohawk Valley Community College
  
  List of Community Colleges which did not have an on-campus poll site in 2023:

  Adirondack Community College
  Broome Community College
  Cayuga County Community College
  Corning Community College
  Duchess Community College
  Finger Lakes Community College
  Fulton-Montgomery Community College
  Herkimer County Community College
  Jamestown Community College
  Jefferson Community College
  Monroe Community College
  Niagara County Community College
  North Country Community College
  Onondaga Community College
  Sullivan County Community College
  Tompkins Cortland Community College

  ---

  [1] This report was prepared by Jonathan Becker, Professor of Politics, Vice President for Academic Affairs, and Director of the Bard Center for Civic Engagement, and students from the Bard Center for Civic Engagement, led by Natalia Novoselteva. Novoseltseva conducted the research as a part of a fall 2023 course, “Student Voting: Power, Politics and Race in the Fight for American Democracy,” taught by Simon Gilhooley and Jonathan Becker, a course supported by the Andrew Mellon Foundation and the Open Society University Network. Novoseltseva received a research micro-grant supported by the Mellon Foundation to allow her to continue research over the winter break in 2023-2024. Others contributing to the report include Anna L., Erika Jeanty, and Christina Jones.
   

  [2] Among other things, the lawsuits demonstrated that Election Commissioner Erik Haight (R) attempted to force Bard students to vote in a small church 1.5 miles from campus during the Covid election of 2020, a space the church elders even deemed unsafe and also did not meet State requirements concerning access to public transportation -  the Americans with Disabilities Act form used for the church was so inaccurate that it begged the question of whether it was a product of incompetence or malfeasance. Haight was also deemed to have been untruthful in his statement to a Supreme Court Justice in Dutchess County over the possibility and consequences of moving a poll site prior to the 2020 election. For more on the Bard case, see Jonathan Becker and Erin Cannan, “Institution as Citizen: Colleges and Universities as Actors in Defense of Student Voting Rights,” Rutgers Law Review, Summer 2022, pp, 1870-1905. For further information, go to: https://cce.bard.edu/community/election/voting-rights/
  .

  [3] This survey was conducted in the spring of 2023 through inquires to county Boards of Election.

  
  

  Download Study as PDF

  
  Post Date: 01-06-2024
  
• Bard College Awarded $399,000 Grant from Mellon Foundation for Project on Voting Rights
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  Bard College Awarded $399,000 Grant from Mellon Foundation for Project on Voting Rights

  

  Students outside Bard College’s Bertelsmann Campus Center after the 2022 midterm election. Photo by Jonathan Asiedu ’24
  

  Bard College is proud to announce that it has received a $399,000 award from the Mellon Foundation to support a three-year applied learning research curricular project on voting rights. The project, done in collaboration with North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Tuskegee University, Prairie View A&M University, and The Andrew Goodman Foundation, will use the 26th Amendment, which lowered the voting age from 21 to 18 and outlawed age-based voter discrimination, as a prism through which to understand the history of voting and disenfranchisement in the United States and the role of college communities in the fight for voting rights. 
   
  The project will produce research and teaching materials on the history of voting rights, with a special focus on the 26th Amendment, in the form of written and video case studies, recorded lectures, and oral histories. These materials will be contextualized by the historic and contemporary struggles for voting rights on these campuses and will in turn be used in the classroom in codesigned and cotaught network collaborative courses that will take place simultaneously at the four main partner institutions of higher education: Bard College, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Tuskegee University, and Prairie View A&M University. The materials will also be used in trainings of student ambassadors of The Andrew Goodman Foundation, a national organization situated on 81 campuses across 26 states and Washington, D.C., including at these institutions, with a mission to make youth voices and votes a powerful force in democracy. The Andrew Goodman Foundation will lift up their students’ ongoing work on these campuses and across its network, and historically ground and help shape their future civic engagement activities as promoters and defenders of the right to vote. 
   
  This project highlights how academic institutions and their leaders can also serve as important civic actors in promoting and defending democratic principles. The four institutions centrally involved in the project offer unique insights into the role of colleges in the fight for voting rights, particularly the fight against discrimination based on race and age. 
   
  Bard College has for the last quarter century participated in four successful lawsuits, one federal and three state, grounded in the 26th Amendment, that established student voting eligibility, a polling site on campus, and the adoption of a state law mandating polling sites on college campuses with more than 300 registered student voters and outlawing campus gerrymanders. 
   
  Tuskegee University (then Tuskegee Institute) and its Dean of Students Charles Goode Gomillion were at the center of a boycott in response to the decision by the Town of Tuskegee to gerrymander town lines so as to exclude the majority of Black residents. Gomillion was the lead plaintiff in the landmark 1960 Supreme Court case, Gomillion v. Lightfoot, in which the court found – for the first time – that an election district boundary designed to exclude Blacks denied equal representation in violation of the 15th Amendment of the US Constitution. 
   
  North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (North Carolina A&T) was not only the home of the Greensboro Four and a critical catalyzing actor during the civil rights movement, but was featured in recent North Carolina state and federal cases Harper v. Lewis and Common Cause v. Runcho, which fought corrosive partisan gerrymandering in the state and ultimately caused the invalidation of the state map which divided the university’s campus into two congressional districts.
   
  Prairie View A&M was involved in the only 26th Amendment case that went before the Supreme Court, Symm v. United States, which in 1979 established the rights of students to vote as residents where they attend college. Prairie View A&M students have subsequently led numerous efforts to fight voter harassment and intimidation, including more recently in a federal case for equal access to early on-campus voting opportunities. 
   
  Melanye Price, Director of the Ruth J. Simmons Center for Race and Justice, Prairie View A&M University, said, “Prairie View and the Ruth J. Simmons Center for Race and Justice are proud to be part of this grant. Our students have been at the forefront of student voting rights advocacy and it is important the current students know this history. We are excited to partner with the Mellon Foundation, Bard College, and other HBCUs to bring this history to national attention”
   
  Dr. Jelani M. Favors, the Henry E. Frye Distinguished Professor of History at North Carolina A&T State University, said, “North Carolina A&T State University is excited to partner with Bard College, Prairie View A&M, Tuskegee University, and The Andrew Goodman Foundation in launching this new teaching and research initiative. With support from the Mellon Foundation and the Open Society University Network, our institutions are poised to further highlight the legacy of civic action and social justice that have defined our campuses and to educate a new generation of students on the challenges that continue to threaten and undermine American democracy.”
   
  Dr. Lisa Bratton, Associate Professor of History, Tuskegee University, said “I am thankful to Bard College for spearheading this collaboration and am excited about the opportunity to work with other HBCUs as we highlight the groundbreaking work of Charles Gomillion. This is yet another opportunity for students to learn more about the history that was made right here in Tuskegee.”
  
  Jonathan Becker, Professor of Political Studies at Bard and Bard’s Vice President for Academic Affairs, who is the project’s Principal Investigator, said, “We are thrilled that the Mellon Foundation is supporting this project, which unites four universities and a non-profit that have been centrally involved in defending the rights of students to vote and the fight against race-based disenfranchisement. Young people are the country’s future and defending their voting rights is essential to a healthy democracy.”
   
  Yael Bromberg, Esq., a constitutional rights attorney, leading legal scholar of the Twenty-Sixth Amendment and lecturer at Rutgers Law School, who additionally serves as Special Counsel and Strategic Advisor to the President/CEO of The Andrew Goodman Foundation, said, “This unique applied learning collaboration will be the first to examine and conceptualize the ways in which a protected class of voters – youth voters – experience and fight against unconstitutional violations of the right to vote, and the unique role of academic institutions in supporting them. The collaboration is special in that we will train and inspire young democracy practitioners, based on the studied experiences of their peers across the country, how to effectively organize and advocate, and when necessary, litigate, for social change.” 
   
  Charles Imohiosen, Esq., President/CEO of The Andrew Goodman Foundation, said: “The Andrew Goodman Foundation is excited to continue to partner with North Carolina A&T University, Prairie View A&M University, and of course Bard College, to make youth voices and votes a powerful force in democracy. We look forward to welcoming Tuskegee University into our family, and are grateful to the Mellon Foundation for making this possible. This unique applied learning collaboration will allow The Andrew Goodman Foundation to share best practices and skills from our network and learn collectively with our partners, as we continue to train and empower young people with the key tools to be effective democracy practitioners.”
  
  Post Date: 01-03-2023
  
• On Election Day, Bard Students Vote at Bertelsmann Campus Center after the College’s Legal Victory for Polling Place on Campus
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  On Election Day, Bard Students Vote at Bertelsmann Campus Center after the College’s Legal Victory for Polling Place on Campus

  

  Photo by Sonita Alizada ’23
  

  Bard Executive Vice President and Director of Center for Civic Engagement Jonathan Becker and Bard senior Huba Zaman ’23 speak with WAMC Northeast Public Radio about the legal fight to secure a fully functional polling site on campus. “The outcome or one of the outcomes of Bard’s involvement in this process has been that it contributed to the argument of a new state law, which allows college campuses with 300 or more registered students to have a polling place on campus," Becker said.
  
  “I’m just super excited that Bard has made it that much easier for students to go out and have their voices heard,” said Zaman, adding, “I think everyone should exercise their right to vote regardless of their political leanings, regardless of their benefit, like backgrounds, because that’s the right that you have and a right you should exercise."
  

  Listen on WAMC
  

  Read about Bard’s legal victory for on-campus polling place
  

  
  Post Date: 11-08-2022
  
• Bard College Secures Fully Functioning On-Campus Polling Site for 2022 General Election
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  Bard College Secures Fully Functioning On-Campus Polling Site for 2022 General Election

  

  Bard students and staff make voting signs at a campus community event. Photo by Jonathan Asiedu ’24
  

  After a fight that has been going on for nearly a quarter century, the Dutchess County Board of Elections (BOE) has finally relented and Bard College will have a fully functional polling site on campus for the 2022 general election, and hopefully beyond. Last week, Election Commissioner Hannah Black informed Bard officials that the poll site at Bard’s Bertelsmann Campus Center would be fully staffed and have the requisite number of polling machines; previously, at the insistence of Republican Commissioner Erik Haight, the site had been the only one in the County to have three instead of four poll workers and one of two to have one polling machine, in violation of election regulations, policies, and practices, and court ordered settlement. The decision occurred after Bard had filed a complaint with the Enforcement Counsel of the New York State Board of Elections following years of litigation to secure an on-campus polling location and ensure equal access to the ballot.
  
  The decision last week appears to be the final chapter in a fight that has been taking place since 1999, when Bard and Vassar students pressed the Dutchess County Board of Elections to cease systematically denying the students the right to register locally, as is their right under New York State election law. The focus shifted to discriminatory regulations concerning student addresses and finally to a poll site on the Bard campus. The victory comes just after the 50th anniversary of the 26th Amendment, which lowered the voting age from 21 to 18 and outlaws age discrimination in ballot access.
  
  Over the last two decades, students from Bard won four lawsuits, including a federal lawsuit and accompanying consent decree (with students from Marist and the Culinary Institute of America) forcing the cessation of registration rejections due to allegedly invalid student addresses (2012-13); a New York State Supreme Court suit over the counting of votes after students were harassed at polls (2009); and two New York State Supreme and Appellate Court decisions establishing and maintaining a polling site at Bard campus (2020 and 2021). In the latter two cases, students were joined by litigants including Bard President Leon Botstein and Vice President for Civic Engagement Erin Cannan, and supported by The Andrew Goodman Foundation, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to making youth voices and votes a powerful force in democracy. In all, the County has spent more than $120,000 in legal fees over the past decade in losing a series of lawsuits.
  
  The Bard cases have had significant reverberations. Last spring, in part in response to Bard’s experience, coupled by the efforts of a statewide voting rights coalition, the state passed a law mandating polling sites on college campuses across the state with 300 or more registered voters. That law is currently being tested at Vassar College, which has yet to be granted a new polling site.
  
  For the 2022 election, the Board of Elections decided to close the second traditional poll site in District 5 at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Barrytown, in spite of a court-approved agreement between Bard and the BOE that allowed for polling sites at both St. John’s and Bard. The St. John’s location had been the site of dispute because of its distance from public transportation and its inaccessibility. The site had been one focus of the complaint to the Enforcement Counsel of the Board of Elections, which included evidence that the BOE had conducted an obviously false American with Disabilities Act survey, including listing “N/A” in response to multiple survey questions on the accessibility of ramps and walkways, coupled with subsequent documentation of Commissioner Haight’s decision to block efforts to conduct a new survey in spite of representations to a Supreme Court judge that the Board would conduct a new survey immediately following the 2020 lawsuit.
  
  Counsel on the most recent actions are Michael Donofrio, Esq. of Stris & Maher LLP, Doug Mishkin, Esq., and Yael Bromberg, Esq. of Bromberg Law LLC.
  
  Jonathan Becker, Bard’s Executive Vice President and Director of Bard’s Center for Civic Engagement stated: “This is a victory for voting rights and for youth voters everywhere and for the 26th Amendment. The Board of Elections’ systemic discrimination against students has been a lesson about the need to fight injustice wherever it appears. We are also pleased the Board’s actions, particularly those of Commissioner Erik Haight, have been so egregious that they have impelled the state to implement legislative fixes to curb abuses of power throughout the state.”
  
  Erin Cannan, Bard’s Dean for Civic Engagement and a plaintiff in the 2020 and 2021 lawsuits said: “This victory can serve as a model for other communities and universities where long-standing efforts to limit voter access can be tackled through partnership, education, and trust. Democracy is about more access not less, and it is in the grassroots work where critical concerns that seem out of our reach can actually be changed by working together in our own neighborhoods.”
  
  Oliver Abrams ’25, a Bard anthropology student who works for the student-led initiative Election@Bard, said: “Bard College’s 23 years of effort have paid off as the Bertelsmann Campus Center is now set to hold an active, fully functioning polling site. This crucial moment is less than a month before the midterm elections, when Bard students will be able to vote on campus without barriers to accessibility. Previously, polling took place in an inaccessible building off campus; now, students can benefit from a direct pathway to civic engagement.”
  
  Yael Bromberg, Esq. of Bromberg Law LLC, a 26th Amendment legal scholar and Special Counsel & Strategic Advisor to the President/CEO of The Andrew Goodman Foundation, who was co-counsel on the recent lawsuits, stated: “The fight for an on-campus polling location at Bard College illustrates the impact that small but mighty victories can have on the state and federal level, and the power of the theory of change endorsed by The Andrew Goodman Foundation which leverages organizing, advocacy, public education, and litigation when necessary. It also exemplifies the power of youth and intersectional voices, particularly when they are supported with cross-generational and cross-organizational leadership.”
  
  What is significant:

  • Bard’s was an important victory in the fight for student voting and the 26th Amendment which lowered the voting age from 21 to 18 and outlawed age discrimination in ballot access, and which just celebrated its 50th Anniversary since ratification. Bard’s was one of two case studies analyzed in depth at a strategic summit co-hosted by The Harvard Kennedy School and The Andrew Goodman Foundation in spring 2022.
  • The fight at Bard demonstrates both the untrammeled authority of Election Commissioners, even in blue states, and the determination required to win even small victories.
  • Bard serves as a model of civically engaged academic institutions, which attempt to realize the democratic vision of higher education.
  • The multi-pronged strategy that leverages organizing, advocacy, public education, and litigation when necessary, exemplifies a theory of change endorsed by the Andrew Goodman Foundation, which led the years long fight for the polling site at Bard College, and whose network of over 80 campuses across 26 states and Washington, D.C. has secured this under-appreciated electoral mechanism on campuses across the country.
  • The actions at Bard College helped inspire change to New York Election Law, which now mandates that qualifying colleges and universities situate on-campus polling locations across the State of New York, and inspired related provisions within the Youth Voting Rights Act.

  
  Further information is available at: Election@Bard website
  
  Post Date: 10-11-2022
  
• “New York Must Build a Better Election System,” Writes Jonathan Becker in an Op-Ed for the Times Union
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  “New York Must Build a Better Election System,” Writes Jonathan Becker in an Op-Ed for the Times Union

  

  L-R: Bard College staff civic engagement leaders Cicily Wilson, Jonathan Becker, and Erin Cannan. Photo by Jonathan Asiedu ’24
  

  “November’s upcoming election serves as an unfortunate reminder that New York still has an election oversight problem,” writes Jonathan Becker, executive vice president and vice president for academic affairs, in an opinion piece for the Times Union. The issue begins with the appointment of election commissioners, who “are not selected by expertise or commitment to voting rights,” but are instead selected by county political committees and are “thus incentivized to create electoral advantage for their patrons rather than facilitate political participation.” Further, there is very little accountability for election commissioners, as citizens must engage in “costly litigation through Article 78 proceedings” in order to challenge violations of their voting rights. Becker proposes multiple solutions to these issues, including greater consistency and transparency with respect to the operations of election commissioners and county boards. “These steps will not solve all problems with New York state voting,” he writes, “but they will bring accountability and empower citizens to defend this most sacred of democratic rights.”
  

  Read more in the Times Union
  

  
  Post Date: 08-30-2022
  
• Bard Files Complaint with New York State Board of Elections to Stop Understaffing and Underequipping at Polling Site
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  Bard Files Complaint with New York State Board of Elections to Stop Understaffing and Underequipping at Polling Site

  Representatives of Bard College have filed a complaint with the enforcement division of the New York State Board of Elections against the Dutchess County Board of Elections in order to protest “the repeated violations of the New York State and federal constitutions, and state and federal statutes and regulations related to equal protection, the right to vote, youth voting rights, disability accessibility, and election law, that have occurred and continue to take place in District 5 in the Town of Red Hook.”
  
  The complaint outlines a pattern of discrimination and malfeasance by the Board of Elections that includes understaffing and underequipping the polling site at the Bertelsmann Campus Center at Bard College, and repeated actions that violate the rights of voters with disabilities. It notes that the polling site at Bard is the only one in the county to be understaffed, and one of only two in the county with just one voting machine. The complaint singles out Republican Election Commissioner Haight for his reported insistence on understaffing the poll site at Bard, ignoring decisions of the State Board of Elections, and making false representations to the New York State Supreme and Appellate Courts. It also highlights his insistence on using a false disability access survey and suppressing efforts for a new survey: a long overdue report released last week by the office oif the County Executive confirmed that the polling site at St. John’s Episcopal in District 5 in Red Hook is neither handicap accessible nor ADA compliant.
  
  The complaint is part of Bard’s longstanding effort to protect the rights of youth voters under the 26th Amendment to the US Constitution and preserve the rights of voters with disabilities. Over the past decade, Bard College and its students have been party to four successful federal and state judgements against the County Board of Elections.
  
  Bard President Leon Botstein, who votes in Red Hook District 5 says, "The continued discrimination against youth voters and the targeting of the polling place at the Bertelsmann Campus Center at Bard is shameful and unfortunately follows a pattern of discriminatory practices in the county. The Board of Elections should encourage young people to vote, not obstruct them."
  
  According to Erin Cannan, Bard College’s Vice President for Civic Engagement, “As a poll worker in Red Hook for over a decade, I was shocked to find only three poll workers, two Democrats and one Republican, at the Bertelsmann Campus Center and object to the plan to have only three poll workers in the upcoming special election. It seems to directly contradict the Dutchess County training I have been required to attend annually, where the emphasis is on equal representation of political parties in all aspects of the voting process and voting accessibility.  This understaffing makes for an unnecessarily long and stressful experience and does not reflect the values or the protocols provided by the Dutchess County Board of Elections to its poll workers.”
  
  According to Bard Vice President for Academic Affairs and Professor of Political Studies Jonathan Becker, “Commissioner Haight’s actions represent everything that is wrong with how elections are carried out in many parts of the United States. He is a public official has ignored the law and the rights of voters and has made repeated false representations to the court. I believe he has chosen to discriminate against voters with disabilities and youth voters for partisan political advantage. His efforts, which have been halted by decisions in numerous federal and state lawsuits, have cost the county nearly $130,000 in legal fees in the past decade, including more than $70,000 in the last two election cycles. We call on the New York State Board of Elections to ensure that all voters in Red Hook District 5 are treated equally at the polling place.”
  
  Find a link to the Full Complaint here.
  
  Post Date: 08-15-2022
  
• New Legislation Will Bring Polling Places to New York College Campuses
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  New Legislation Will Bring Polling Places to New York College Campuses

  

  Photo by Sonita Alizada ’23
  

  Legislative Win Follows Years-Long Fight for Student Voting Rights

  
  ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, NY — As a part of the new budget, the New York State Legislature and Governor Kathy Hochul have passed legislation to mandate polling places on college campuses with 300 or more registered students or at a nearby site proposed by the college. The legislation will also prevent the division of college campuses into multiple voting districts.
  
  “The legislation is critical, because it will stop practices designed to suppress student voting, including situating polling in locations that are difficult to access and dividing campuses into multiple districts,” said Jonathan Becker, Executive Vice President of Bard College and Director Bard’s Center for Civic Engagement. “It means that New York college students can now focus more on whom they should vote for rather than whether they can vote. We hope it will set a precedent for other states to follow.”
  
  The legislation, based on New York Bill A454/S4658, was supported by the coalition Let New York Vote, uniting groups like GenVote, NYPIRG, Citizens Union, and Common Cause, as well as representatives from The Andrew Goodman Foundation and Bard College; the latter two have worked together on voting rights at Bard for a decade. Today’s statewide legislative victory is a direct result of 2020 and 2021 lawsuits filed by The Andrew Goodman Foundation and Bard College to bring a polling place to campus. The experience of generations of Bard students, many of whom have served as Andrew Goodman Ambassadors, in battling voter suppression efforts by the Dutchess County Board of Elections was central to the arguments for the need for a statewide legislative fix. 
  
  "This recent win in the New York State Legislature is not just a win for civic engagement but also a win for accessibility. With its passing, Bard students and students across most New York State college campuses will be afforded access to their ballot. Although this is a huge win, the fight is not over. As students, we must stay vigilant in the battle for voting rights and access, as well as all the issues in between. We must continue to urge our elected officials to work for us, not against us. This win is a product of this continued push," said Aleksandar Demetriades '25, Election@Bard student leader and Andrew Goodman Ambassador.
  
  "I'm so excited to see this victory, after years of student voter advocacy across the state. As a Bard alumna, I'm happy that I could continue the fight that my peers (and those who came before us) worked on. But again, there's more work to be done. We look forward to continuing the fight to make sure elections are as accessible as possible," said Sarah deVeer '17, Outreach Coordinator, Center for Civic Engagement and Andrew Goodman Campus Champion.
  
  “As a named plaintiff in our previous lawsuit and as a poll worker, I'm grateful that the New York State legislature has passed this groundbreaking legislation. Youth voters want to vote. It is not true that they are apathetic. It is true that lack of access to the polls is a barrier. This legislation helps New York move the needle on realizing the potential of the 26th Amendment and hopefully acts as an example for other states to take the next step,” said Erin Cannan, Bard College Vice President of Civic Engagement and Andrew Goodman Campus Champion.
  
  “After our successful litigation, twice, on behalf of Bard College, its students, and its University President, the State of New York now sends a call that should resonate across the nation: college campuses – central locations where a protected class of voters studies, works, eats, and lives – are uniquely situated to serve as polling locations,” said Yael Bromberg, Chief Counsel & Strategic Advisor for The Andrew Goodman Foundation. “The Andrew Goodman Foundation  equips our student ambassadors and campuses with critical, deep resources to help them organize, advocate, learn, and only when necessary, litigate. Our research has found that the availability of on-campus polling locations is among the most impactful electoral mechanisms in boosting youth turnout. Fifty years ago, this nation came together across partisan lines to ratify the Twenty-Sixth Amendment and protect access to the ballot free of age discrimination. The Andrew Goodman Foundation has worked to secure polling locations on campuses across the nation, from Florida to Arizona, and many more, and we will continue to do so, now heartened by this new path-breaking statewide win.”
  
  Counsel on the 2021 lawsuit were Michael Donofrio, Esq. of Stris & Maher LLP, Doug Mishkin, Esq., and Yael Bromberg, Esq. of Bromberg Law LLC.

  
  
  Post Date: 04-09-2022