Earning a Place in Congressional Record

EVANSTON, Ill. --- NU Votes and U Vote -- Northwestern University’s voter registration initiatives spearheaded by its Center for Civic Engagement -- have officially earned a place in the Congressional Record of the 112th Congress.

U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, whose 9th Congressional District of Illinois includes Evanston, expressed her support for the University’s voter education efforts and what she called a “wildly successful” student voter registration initiative.

The Congressional Record notes that by the first day of classes NU Votes this year successfully registered almost 95 percent of eligible Northwestern freshman and new students to vote in their home state or Illinois. Through the U Vote Project, it also notes, Northwestern shared its proven techniques with eight other universities and doubled or tripled their student voter registration.

An article in The New York Times about Northwestern’s voter registration model was published last month.

“Northwestern’s efforts and U Vote Project are the type of collaboration between students and institutions of higher learning that I envisioned when I introduced the Student Voter Act,” Schakowsky said in the Congressional Record. She thanked Northwestern President Morton Schapiro and indicated that other universities should follow his lead.