Voter Engagement Efforts Should Reach Online Students Too

Posted by Forbes on March 31, 2026

When people hear of campus voter engagement efforts, they typically picture voter registration tables, motivational speakers, and get-out-the-vote giveaway items (t-shirts, stickers, bags, etc.). While these are still some of the most visible ways to make students aware of an upcoming election, they should not be the only nonpartisan methods that colleges and universities use to help students prepare to vote.

This is especially true at community colleges, which tend to offer significantly more online courses than four-year institutions. Nearly half of all community college courses were offered online during the 2023–2024 academic year. A majority of these were online asynchronous courses, which have no class meeting times and instead offer students pre-recorded lecture videos. These asynchronous courses remain quite popular with students given the flexibility they provide. I know this first-hand as an instructor at San Diego Mesa College, where many of my online students are working full-time, raising children, or caring for an elderly family member. Some of these students may seldom step foot on our campus and naturally, miss out on the traditional voter engagement efforts that typically occur in person.

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