Support Grows For Van Holllen, Bennet's National Emergency Student Vote Act

Sen. Chris Van Hollen Newsroom:

U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) cosponsored legislation by Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Richard Durbin (D-Ill.), and Cory Booker (D-N.J.). Their National Emergency Student Vote Act is legislation to help college students exercise their right to vote in the 2020 elections even as millions are displaced from campus due to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Since the bill’s introduction last month, 14 additional senators have cosponsored the bill and 10 additional representatives have cosponsored the companion legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Nationwide, there are roughly 20 million voting-eligible college students in America, more than every registered voter in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Iowa, and Colorado combined. Many college students are first-time voters, and navigating questions about where and how they can register and vote is complicated under normal conditions. The pandemic has only made this harder. The National Emergency Student Vote Act, which Bennet first introduced in July, will guarantee that even if students are not on campus this fall, colleges and universities would still have to share resources to help them register to vote, request absentee ballots, and exercise their different options to vote.

The legislation is supported by NASPA, Young Invincibles, Fair Elections Center’s Campus Vote Project, End Citizens United/Let America Vote Action Fund, Common Cause, Public Citizen, New Era Colorado, Generation Citizen, and National Education Association (NEA).

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