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At its core, TX Votes is a family of political nerds who love voting and pizza. That means that we register thousands of Longhorns to vote and eat an embarrassing amount of pizza.
Each election cycle, TX Votes, sponsored by the Annette Strauss Institute for Civic Life, organizes and coordinates Get Out the Vote activities, including classroom voter registration, deputization sessions, and voting celebrations. Over the last few years, we have seen our family grow in both membership and impact on our campus. We are proud to say that as a nonpartisan organization, we have created the UT Civic Engagement Alliance and facilitated UT’s participation in the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge and the Campus Vote Project’s Voter Friendly Campus.
The Civic Engagement Alliance is a collaborative nonpartisan effort of over 100 UT Austin organizations and institutes, convened by
TX Votes to improve voter engagement, as well as other forms of civic engagement, on campus. Participation is very simple:
This collaborative effort has been a huge contributing reason for the improved voter engagement on campus. At UT Austin, we saw voter turnout improve by 15% from 2012 to 2016 and by 37.3% from 2014 to 2018. Collaborative events by CEA organizations take place on campus every year, including the "Last Day to Register to Vote" Celebration, VoteFest, Election Night Watch Parties, and Civics Celebrations. Money raised by CEA members will be used toward CEA events.
The CEA needs our help more than ever! With COVID, there has been less participation across campus. We are asking for funds to help bolster the Civic Engagement Alliance and increase its engagement at UT.
It's challenging not to be able to do outreach and register voters in person, as TX Votes has customarily done in the past. However, TX Votes has pivoted to reaching students digitally by creating videos, a newsletter, a website, and social media graphics, all with voting information for students. This summer, students received care packages with information about the July runoff election, COVID-19 resources, and how to be counted in the census. Additionally, TX Votes paid for a service called TurboVote, which is a free tool for UT students to start the registration process without a hassle. TX Votes has been busy presenting voting information to Zoom classrooms, collaborating with other departments, and canvassing fellow students to get out the vote! Over this past election cycle, we were also able to target students specifically through social media infographics and challenges. These events cost money as we provide incentive items to encourage engagement with TX Votes. That's why we need your support!
Civic engagement in the state of Texas is abysmal, but UT Austin students consistently vote at higher rates than the rest of the state. Texas constantly ranks as one of the lowest states for voter turnout. This past election, Texas was prominent in the news for breaking voting turnout records and was known as a state "to watch." The youth vote during the 2020 election was also higher than ever! With trends like this currently happening in the civic engagement space, our work is more important than ever!
Research shows that individuals need to start voting at a young age if they are to create a habit of voting. Students at the University of Texas represent communities across the state that will benefit from increased voter turnout in the future. In addition, many voters lack the information they need to vote and do not know who or what to turn to in order to get that information. We are a trusted source at UT that provides nonpartisan voter information. Lastly, the students who participate in TX Votes walk away with skills, experiences, and connections that will help them in their future. We want to be able to provide this opportunity to all students who are interested in joining TX Votes.
The money raised during the annual TX Votes Hornraiser accounts for 80% of our budget, excluding pay for staff support, which is provided by the Annette Strauss Institute for Civic Life. Our regular expenses include:
We also plan to invite more speakers to campus. This project will allow us to bring in different members of government - both elected and appointed - to speak with members of the UT community. We hope this, in addition to more civic discourse and government training for TX Votes members, will allow UT students to be more engaged both on campus and in their communities.
While TX Votes is still operating remotely, we are hopeful that we are able to return to in-person events following the Spring 2021 semester. We still need to raise costs to cover the amounts needed for online events, participation tokens, and other items necessary to complete our mission to encourage civic engagement across Texas.
TX Votes was originally called UT Votes. It was established in 2004, but became a sponsored student organization, under the Annette Strauss Institute for Civic Life in 2006.
We partnered with 33 individuals and organizations at UT and in the community to get out the vote in fall 2020!
7,726 students were enrolled in the classes that TX Votes presented and gave voter registration help to in Fall 2020.
Our goal for UT Austin is 100 percent voter registration and turnout of eligible UT Austin students during all elections.
1243 students requested registration assistance through Turbovote, purchased by TX Votes.
TX Votes presented to 189 classrooms during the Fall 2020 semester. These classes had a combined registration of 7,726 students!
In 2018, 54.8 percent of UT Austin students turned out to vote. Remarkably, this was a 37.3 percent increase from 2014.
In 2014, only 17.6 percent of UT Austin students turned out to vote. In 2018, that turnout rate improved to 54.8 percent.
In 2016, approximately 4,056 UT Austin freshmen (or first year students) voted.
In 2016, 84 percent of UT Austin's eligible students were registered to vote. This donation would fully fund TX Votes for the 2020-21 school year.
