Partners with group, founded by Democrat leader that “drives real, meaningful change by shifting culture, systems, and policy“
By Guy Page
The Vermont Campus Voting Challenge, a college voter registration initiative announced Jan. 25 by Vermont Secretary of State Sarah Copeland Hanzas, is run by the ALL IN arm of Civic Nation, a non-partisan non-profit whose founder has strong ties with the national Democratic Party.
Civic Nation was founded by Jenn Brown, a former campaign leader for New Jersey Sen. Corey Booker and Hillary Clinton. After founding Civic Nation in 2015, she was named VP of Planned Parenthood of America in 2020.
“Civic Nation drives real, meaningful change by shifting culture, systems, and policy…Our goal is to empower individuals, companies, institutions, and organizations to create a more inclusive, equitable America,” Brown says on her LinkedIn page.
Civic Nation media highlight the importance of college voters in ‘battleground’ states. “Battleground states with competitive elections have seen an increase in youth voter registrations since 2018, including Michigan, Kansas, Nevada, North Carolina and Arizona. As a group, college students are motivated by the hot-button issues of abortion, inflation, climate change, and ‘protecting democracy,” a Civic Nation fact sheet claims.
“In fact, two-in-five youth voters say the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision makes them more likely to vote in the midterms this year,” the fact sheet states.
In the 2020 General Election, the national student voting rate was 66%, a 14-point increase from 2016. The rate of registered students who voted hit 80%, up from 69% in 2016. ALL IN campuses had average 2020 voter turnout rates that were 3.7 percentage points higher than campuses that were not engaged in ALL IN, the fact sheet states.
And no wonder, considering that in 2023, Civic Nation:
- Educated 2.2 million voters about the 2023 elections
- Activated 4,539 volunteers and civic leaders
- Engaged 1,397 high school and college campuses
- Partnered with over 150 celebrities, athletes, and social media influencers
- Collaborated with 1,367 media, corporate, and non-profit partners
Participating Vermont colleges and universities will be eligible for awards based on achieving their campus goals for the November 5 election, Copeland-Hanzas announced.
“The Vermont Campus Voting Challenge is a great addition to all of the civics education and engagement work my office has been focused on since I took office last year,” said Copeland Hanzas, “I know we have engaged college students here in Vermont and any extra incentive for them to get energized about voting is fantastic. I can’t wait to see the results of our partnership with ALL IN as November’s General Election draws closer.”
Institutions that opt into the program will be provided guidance and tools to create an action plan for increasing student engagement on their campus, Copeland-Hanzas said. “By signing up for the Vermont Campus Voting Challenge, all accredited, degree-granting higher education institutions across the state can improve, measure, and celebrate efforts to institutionalize nonpartisan civic learning, political engagement, and informed voter participation.” They also will be eligible for state-level and national awards.
Civic Nation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that bills itself as “a nonprofit ecosystem for high-impact organizing and education initiatives working to build a more inclusive and equitable America. Civic Nation shifts culture, systems, and policy by bringing together individuals, grassroots organizers, industry leaders and influencers to tackle some of our nation’s most pressing social challenges.”
Influencewatch.org posted the following:
“Civic Nation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit founded in 2015, headed by President Jason Waskey (CEO of Blue Crab Strategies LLC) and Executive Director Jenn Brown. Touting itself as an organ of widespread positive social change, Civic Nation funds several large charitable initiatives: Erase the Hate, College Promise, It’s On Us, ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge, #VoteTogether, and United State of Women. Civic Nation functions as a sort of organizing hub for its partner, Creative Alliance, a left-leaning marketing group which produces advertisements and online content for its subsidiary and partner organizations. From fiscal year 2016 to 2017 Civic Nation’s funding nearly tripled from 2,945,775 to 8,326,553. IRS Form 990 document
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why is the state partnering with anyone about voting? Isn’t that their job? Why are lobbyist groups hiding under the guise of non-profits influencing our election?
Is this not ELECTION INTERFERENCE?
why is any outside organization having ANY influence on our secretary of state?
How can somebody like marx zuckerberg directly influence our elections with, how much was it 300 million?
Bet the VTGOP and Governor don’t say or do anything, anyone want to take that bet?
I think it is understood that these kind of tactics are only considered election interference if they are perpetrated by republicans…
not me//
Did anyone catch the court proceedings in Georgia where it was demonstrated, in front of the judge and entire court, that votes on the machine can be tampered with quite easily? Obviously, the installed regime can’t win without cheating. Anyone who believes their vote cannot be tampered with and has been tampered with for quite a while now is in deep woeful denial. The lawfare warfare being waged now is the coverup and exposure ensures the next “event” is closer now than not.
Personally I have a problem with this as it has always been my opinion that out of state students should not be allowed to vote in Vermont. Send them home, or have them vote on absentee ballots from their home state. If they are paying out of state tuition rates, that ought to tell these disingenuous, groveling vote buyers something.
So, you say a working student who pays taxes in Vermont, has a mailing address in Vermont, and is paying tuition in Vermont, shouldn’t be allowed to vote in Vermont? Wouldn’t that be taxation without representation?
Are you saying all out-of-state college students in Vermont, work full-time in Vermont, pay witholding taxes in Vermont, live full-time in Vermont – aren’t dependents on their parent’s out-of-state tax returns and don’t vote where they otherwise reside?
I disagree with the vitriolic characterizations of these students by VDC commentors. But I also caution against over-simplified responses to those characterizations.
And keep in mind too, that Vermont is one of the only State’s in the country that doesn’t verify signatures on mail-in ballot envelopes. Should the State send every out-of-state college student a mail-in ballot?
Are they paying out of state tuition rates ? If they are someone has allready determined their residency status, and the answer is yes, regardless. Illegals on Vt. farms are paying taxes. Should they be able to vote ? I don’t think so .
A little background on why I feel the way I do on this subject. I was working security at the West Wing doors at the Capitol for the “same sex marriage” hearings. I witnessed 4 tour buses loaded with college students, two from UVM, one from Castleton, and one from Bennington, and one school bus from a Catholic church in Mass. pull up, and drop off their riders. Some I’m sure were Vermonters, but a lot were not. There was no priority established by residency for speaking, so non resident students, and out of state church goers that signed in first were allowed to speak in order regardless of residency. Is that fair ? The way I saw it, for every non resident that spoke, a Vermonter was denied that right. When the time limit was reached, the hearings ended. I can only tell you that I’d have been pizzed if someone fron New Jersey had been allowed to speak, but I was not . I have the same issue with non residents voting here. If you live in a place where the electorate is closely divided, I do not think it proper for issues to be decided by non-residents students who would/could move somewhere else after affecting an outcome. Sorry (not!), that’s just the way I see it.
YES!!!!!!
If you are not a vermont resident, you shouldn’t be able to vote in Vermont election.
It’s pretty simple.
Become a resident and vote. It’s really not that difficult.
You don’t need to go to an expensive school, have a job or even a mailing address, but you do need to be a resident. It’s really simple. A resident is invested in the state, everyone else has their interests vested in some other state or country.
Can’t vote in two places, despite how popular that may be in certain crowds
Let’s talk about the 38% of homes in Vermont owned by people from out of state. With the exception of three towns/cities in Vermont, none of these second homeowners can vote in local elections and they typically pay higher taxes than locals. That is a clear case of taxation without representation. How do you respond to that “briancostellovt”? I certainly don’t say it with the intention of incurring your wrath…it’s a legitimate question and one I certainly don’t have an answer to. I don’t own a second property. Never have. But the unfairness bothers me, but I don’t see a “fair” way out of this either. Unless the college student declares Vermont as their legal residence then they are not residents and cannot be allowed to vote… or should not be allowed to vote.
Just my humble opinion.
Yea but this way they can vote twice.
I’m beginning to think these actions by State political officials are either mere spoofs, intended to frustrate conservatives, and otherwise reasonable people, into doing something equally idiotic, or simply the machinations of a mentally disturbed person. I simply can no longer take any of these reports, or our responses to them, seriously. No reasonable person can be this foolish. Secretary of State, Sarah Copeland Hanzas, is no different than the poor soul one comes across sitting on the sidewalk on Church Street, mumbling sweet nothings to themselves and gesturing to their imagined antagonists. It’s unfortunate, to be sure. And, for the life of me, I don’t know how to help them. But that’s no reason for those of us who know better, to join them either.
This current sos is following the path laid out by those good democrat sos before her.
Nomenklatura member copeland hanzas is doing exactly as told- working to increase the voter rolls with like-minded voters. bernie did the same in burlington.
In a casino, the rules are always stacked in the house ‘s favor- why not in politics?
james condos legally altered state voting laws in 2020, with full legislative approval to allow mail-in ballots and the corruption that accompanied those ballots. This is a simple measure, again perfectly legal, to tilt the table just a bit more. copeland hanzas is far from foolish. Just the dutiful party apparatchik.
Isn’t this how Bernie got elected to Mayor without any substantive background?
Impressionable out of state students shouldn’t have the right to vote in Vermont, they don’t have to stick around and pay the consequences.
“Non-partisan non-profit” made me chuckle. Whenever you hear that you know Soros is involved.
How do you win elections, cheat in the many ways we have seen or make the rule works for you, as Vermont’s secretary wants !!
First off if your a legal resident in the state, not a part resident like most of Vermont’s
out of state college students that live here, on and off throughout the year, but have not transferred any of there legal documentation like a driver license, car registration showing legal residency, Oh wait you don’t need an ID to vote, just a name, and a address !!
So if VT Secretary of State that promotes college student voter registration, then she’ll clean up the voter registration file and verify ” true residency ” but I doubt it
with something like an ID……………………………….
I live in Burlington and if I look at the cars on the streets most are sitting with plates from MA, NJ, CT,NY all liberal states, ……….. New Voters ? , and that how you win !!
Wake up people,
Vermont is full of radical socialists (communists,) and Marxists. Progressives destroy everything they touch.
When will these people realize equity fails EVERYONE!
When they run out of our money……
Never if they are true believers.
Wife and I left Vt for various reasons in June 2022. Moved to Georgia and I volunteered as a poll worker. The difference in election laws is night and day. Voter ID is mandatory- no ID no vote, you have to be a Ga resident, registration ends 28 days before election day, you can vote absentee by mail but you have to request a ballot- no automatic mailings, absentee ballot drop boxes are in a secure location- usually the county election offices.
And yet GA cheated their butts off last Presidential election…
This is why there has to be full auditing afterwords. That’s the only way to know that no one cheated.