After the 2022 midterms suggested a narrowing turnout gap between community colleges and four‑year public institutions, researchers and campus organizers hoped 2024 would show whether targeted efforts closed that gap. Instead, data that schools rely on to measure student voter registration and turnout has been paused.
In March, Tufts University researchers announced they had halted releasing school‑level statistics from the National Study of Learning, Voting and Engagement (NSLVE). The National Student Clearinghouse — the key source of student enrollment records used to produce NSLVE reports — also withdrew from the project after more than a decade of participation. More than 1,000 colleges and universities participate in NSLVE, which Tufts says is a nonpartisan study designed to measure whether students vote, not whom they vote for. The study began in 2013.
The pause follows an Education Department investigation, launched in February by the Trump administration, into unspecified reports that NSLVE may violate the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). Department officials framed the probe as protecting election integrity; privacy experts have expressed skepticism about the allegations. Tufts and the National Student Clearinghouse maintain they have complied with the privacy law.
Right‑wing election activists who have criticized efforts to boost voting among demographics perceived to favor Democrats played a role in raising questions about NSLVE. In 2023, activist Heather Honey wrote a document alleging that colleges might violate FERPA by allowing the clearinghouse to access enrollment records for the study; the document also raised concerns about Catalist, a Democratic‑aligned firm that once provided public voter records used in matching. Honey later was appointed deputy assistant secretary for elections integrity at the Department of Homeland Security. At a March meeting of conservative activists, Republican lawyer Cleta Mitchell credited Honey and others with prompting the Education Department action and hailed the clearinghouse’s withdrawal as a “victory.”
Advocacy and watchdog groups warn those ties between activists and the administration illustrate how a network of election skeptics is influencing government policy. Brendan Fischer of the Campaign Legal Center described the situation as showing the power of election conspiracy theorists to shape how civic participation is studied and how elections are run. He also noted an irony in the administration investigating an outside program for alleged privacy violations while facing its own legal challenges over handling sensitive data.
The Education Department sent a February guidance letter to colleges advising administrators to refrain from using any NSLVE report or data this year until the investigation concludes. The letter warned of “a number of enforcement options,” including withholding or clawing back federal funding from institutions found to violate FERPA. Amanda Fuchs Miller, who served as deputy assistant secretary for higher education programs under the Biden administration, called the letter a “scare tactic,” noting it’s unusual to issue such warnings before any findings. She said smaller and under‑resourced institutions without in‑house legal counsel may respond by dropping participation to avoid perceived risks to federal student aid.
Campus leaders say the timing is harmful. Clarissa Unger, executive director of the Students Learn Students Vote Coalition, said the missing 2024 data prevents schools from evaluating whether recent efforts — especially to support community colleges — were successful. Melissa Michelson, dean of arts and sciences at Menlo College, said she would prioritize financial responsibility and preserving federal aid over continuing participation if forced to choose. Administrators worry that without up‑to‑date NSLVE feedback, iterative improvements to boost turnout — testing strategies, measuring effects across student subgroups and adjusting programs — become far harder.
The NSLVE probe is the latest federal action that has chilled campus voter engagement work. Last August, the Education Department issued guidance saying institutions could limit recipients when distributing mail voter registration forms to avoid “aiding and abetting voter fraud,” and suggesting federal work‑study funds not be used for student voter registration or poll work. That guidance conflicted with statutory requirements that many institutions make voter registration forms broadly available to students and with federal guidance that does not prohibit using work‑study for on‑campus civic activities. Senate Democrats, led by Sen. Cory Booker, have asked the department to reconsider the prior guidance, saying it undermines decades of bipartisan support for higher education’s role in encouraging voter registration.
Advocates for student voting warn the combined effect of the investigation and earlier guidance is to sow confusion and deter institutions — particularly smaller 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 efforts and could weaken efforts to increase turnout among the cohort least likely to vote.