The Harvard Votes Challenge (HVC) aims to increase voter registration, engagement, and turnout at Harvard University and beyond through institutional reforms and student-driven, community-based creative organizing. Originally founded for the 2018 midterm elections, HVC builds on previous voter registration and GOTV campaigns to create a permanent infrastructure across Harvard University. In partnership with students and staff at the IOP and around the University, the HVC team will create and lead an innovative campaign to mobilize voters and change campus culture. In the process, team members will build campaign and leadership skills, while being a part of a warm and friendly community. HVC aspires to have an impact beyond the gates of Harvard and seeks to engage with peer institutions and high schools in the Boston-area as well as the higher-education community nation wide.
Chaired by: Amanda Powers | amandapowers@college.harvard.edu and Kevin Ballen | kballen@college.harvard.edu
What's the Harvard Votes Challenge? How can I register? When is Election Day? These are all important questions, and we've got answered. We've tried to answer as many of the most common questions we get about HVC, voting, and civic engagement on our Frequently Asked Questions page.
Click here to find answer to the most common questions about HVC.
If you’re a Harvard student voting in Cambridge, click here to find your voting location.
Together, Coalition Leaders and the HVC Team aim to increase voter participation at Harvard by:
Lowering the barriers to voting
through voter education and access efforts. Coalition Leaders will utilize TurboVote, an online registration platform created by Kennedy School alum Seth Flaxman), and will work with school’s respective administrators to integrate voter registration into class registration processes. The IOP has worked with Harvard College to register students during online “Check-In” since 2015.
Energizing voters
through a series of Harvard Votes Action Days. These milestones–like National Voter Registration Day–will serve as markers for student action.
Shifting our campus culture
through a series of fun and innovative events that will be announced throughout the semester.
How to get invovled with the Harvard Votes Challenge
Register to vote, commit to vote, education yourself about canddiates and issues, and cast a ballot on Election Day. You can join the HVC and become a member of our team who energizes Harvard students about voting, builds a campus-wide culture of voting and civic engagement, and makes sure that your friends and classmates and roommates get to the polls and make their voices heard.
For more information about how to join HVC as an undergraduate, contact HVC Co-Chair Teddy Landis at tlandis@college.harvard.edu.
There are ways to get invovled at each of Harvard's degree granting schools including: Harvard College, Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard Business School, Harvard Extension School, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Harvard Graduate School of Design, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard Law School, Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Harvard Medical School, Harvard School of Dental Medicine, and Harvard Divinity School.
For more information about how to get invovled in the HVC as a graduate student in your respective school, contact HVC Student Co-Chair of University-Wide Programming, Harvard Kennedy School: Derek Paulhus, derekpaulhus@college.harvard.edu
As a Harvard faculty member, you can promote voting and voter registration in your classroom, support HVC events and activities on campus, and share the TurboVote link and platform with students. Click here to learn all about how faculty get get invovled.
To find out more, contact HVC Coordinator at the Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics: Rob Watson, rob_watson@gse.harvard.edu.
Whether you work in a staff role at Harvard (Human rResources, Communications, etc), at a research center, an institute, or any affiliate of Harvard, there are plenty of ways to get invovled in the HVC.
To find out more, contact HVC Coordinator at the Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics: Rob Watson, rob_watson@gse.harvard.edu.
HVC and Voting News
It is almost impossible to keep up with all the news going on every day, that's why we're going to curate the top news about the HVC and news about voting and civic engagement right here -- it's your one-stop-stop to stay current with everything going on in voting and voter participation.
