UC Votes wins national awards for the 2025 ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge

The University of Cincinnati has been recognized nationally for outstanding voter engagement efforts through the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge. Founded in 2016, ALL IN is the premier organization to encourage colleges and universities in the United States to achieve excellence in nonpartisan student democratic engagement. UC Votes took home the award for Standout Nonpartisan Campus Student Voting Group. Keith Lanser, Assistant Director for UC's Center for Community Engagement, was honored with the Standout Campus Administrator award. UC student Alyssa Robinson ('27) earned a spot on the National Student Voting Honor Roll for registering the most voters and has providing leadership to the organization. Debra Moy of the League of Women Voters of Cincinnati Area won Standout Local Partner for her UC Votes volunteer work at UC Blue Ash, where she registered hundreds of students herself.

The awards acknowledge nearly five years of enhanced civic engagement efforts that started when Keith Lanser arrived at UC in 2021. As a part of his position, Keith was charged with a big undertaking - assisting students in exercising their right to vote through the non-partisan social change initiative, UC Votes.

ALL IN Student Honor Roll award winner Alyssa Robinson (center) and fellow UC Votes student worker Jessie Hudgens (right) speak to a new student at Bearcats Bound Orientation about registering to vote. Photo/Ainsley Moore/Student Affairs

Keith Lanser, Assistant Director of the Center for Community Engagement

"UC is actually in a unique spot - our voter precinct almost perfectly wraps around campus, and this allows us to have a great picture of our voter registration rate," Lanser said. In his initial assessment of precinct 12-B, Lanser found the numbers looking grim. Between 2016 and 2023, the voting rate for precinct 12-B decreased from 59.1% to 8%, a 51.1% decrease. While the 2020 presidential election had almost an 18% turnout, it was still the lowest in the county. With fears that the Board of Elections could close our polling location due to low numbers, Keith knew that something had to be done. "When we go back to the mission of the institution - we must prepare students to be engaged citizens," Lanser said, adding that "higher education should help prepare students to have the tools they need to be a good human, and I felt a deep sense of responsibility to get those numbers up."

Lanser and the UC Votes team were also committed to making voting more accessible for students. They ensured election protection officials would be in place at the Langsam Library on election day and verified that students would be offered provisional ballots.

The team's strategic efforts worked - 40% of registered voters in precinct 12-B voted in this election - a whopping 20% jump. "I have never been prouder of students in my entire life. I told them they did everything they could within their sphere of influence to get that number up. This is the kind of work we can do with young people," Lanser said.

Featured image at top: UC Votes students offer a voter registration table outside of TUC. Photo/Ainsley Moore/Student Affairs

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