Researchers and campus organizers expected 2024 to show whether targeted efforts narrowed the turnout gap between community colleges and four‑year public institutions after the 2022 midterms. Instead, the data many colleges rely on to track student voter registration and turnout has been paused.
In March, Tufts University, which runs the National Study of Learning, Voting and Engagement (NSLVE), stopped publishing school‑level statistics. The National Student Clearinghouse — the source of enrollment records used to create NSLVE reports — also withdrew after more than a decade of participation. More than 1,000 colleges and universities took part in NSLVE, a nonpartisan study begun in 2013 that measures whether students vote, not whom they vote for.
The suspension follows an Education Department investigation opened in February under the Trump administration into allegations that NSLVE may have violated the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). Department officials framed the probe as protecting election integrity; privacy experts and NSLVE partners have pushed back, saying the program complies with privacy law. Tufts and the Clearinghouse say they followed FERPA rules.
Conservative activists helped raise the original questions about NSLVE. In 2023, activist Heather Honey circulated a paper alleging colleges could violate FERPA by allowing the Clearinghouse to access enrollment data for the study and also flagged concerns about Catalist, a data firm that provided voter records in earlier matches. Honey later took a federal role focused on elections integrity at the Department of Homeland Security. At a March gathering of conservative activists, Republican lawyer Cleta Mitchell credited Honey and others with prompting the Education Department’s action and celebrated the Clearinghouse’s withdrawal.
Advocacy groups and watchdogs warn that these connections show an organized network of election skeptics influencing government policy. Campaign Legal Center attorney Brendan Fischer said the episode illustrates how conspiratorial election skepticism can shape how civic participation is studied and how elections are administered, noting the irony of the administration scrutinizing an outside privacy compliance issue while it faces questions of its own handling of sensitive data.
In February the Education Department sent guidance to colleges advising administrators not to use any NSLVE reports or data this year while the investigation is ongoing. The letter warned of possible enforcement options, including withholding or clawing back federal funds from institutions found in violation of FERPA. Amanda Fuchs Miller, who served in a Biden administration higher‑education post, called the letter a “scare tactic,” saying it is unusual to issue such threats before any formal findings and that smaller institutions without in‑house counsel may drop participation to avoid perceived risk to federal student aid.
Campus leaders say the timing is damaging. Clarissa Unger of the Students Learn Students Vote Coalition warned that the absence of 2024 data will prevent campuses from evaluating whether recent outreach — especially to community colleges — worked. Melissa Michelson, dean at Menlo College, said she would err on the side of protecting federal aid and institutional finances if forced to choose between participation and risk. Administrators say losing up‑to‑date NSLVE feedback makes it harder to test strategies, measure effects across student subgroups and refine programs to boost turnout.
The NSLVE probe is the latest federal action critics say has chilled campus voter engagement efforts. In August the Education Department issued guidance suggesting schools could limit who receives mail voter registration forms to avoid “aiding and abetting voter fraud” and advising that federal work‑study funds not be used for voter registration or polling work. That guidance conflicted with statutory requirements that many institutions broadly make registration forms available and with prior federal advice permitting work‑study for on‑campus civic activities. Senate Democrats, led by Sen. Cory Booker, have asked the department to withdraw or clarify the guidance.
Advocates warn the combined effect of the investigation and earlier guidance is to sow confusion and deter institutions — particularly under‑resourced community colleges and minority‑serving institutions — from engaging students in elections. Withholding NSLVE data in a midterm year leaves campus programs without current evidence to shape mobilization and could weaken efforts to increase turnout among the students least likely to vote.