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By Feven Gerezgiher

St. Olaf College in Northfield had the highest college voter turnout in Minnesota during the 2022 midterm elections, according to recently released data.

Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon shared the findings on Thursday in announcing the winners of the 2022 Democracy Cup, a statewide competition to boost college voter turnout. On even years, every campus in Minnesota races to turn out the highest percentage of voters to win the Democracy Cup. The effort is supported by the Minnesota Secretary of State’s office, several student associations and the All In Campus Democracy Challenge.

St. Olaf won the 2022 Democracy Cup with 90 percent of its students registered to vote and 67 percent of students voting during the midterm elections.

In fact, St. Olaf had the highest voter turnout rate of the more than 1,000 private and public colleges and universities in the country that participated in competition, according to All In.

It marks the second victory in a row for the private liberal arts school of about 3,000 students. It also had the highest student voter turnout in 2020, with 87 percent of students voting. In both instances, the campus voted at a rate higher than the state average — 80 percent in 2020 and 61 percent in 2022.

“We want maximum participation period, whether folks are old or young, students or not,” Simon said after a voter engagement event at Metropolitan State University in St. Paul.

“We want more people with their hand on the steering wheel than not, and so the more we can get people voting and using their voice and expressing themselves and trying to affect change at the ballot box, the better.”

Simon said the results took time to compile and only just became available. Voter turnout is decided relative to each college or university’s eligible voter base, as determined by a national study at Tufts University.

Institutions were ranked for highest student voter turnout by their category. Other 2022 Democracy Cup winners were:

• 2-year public college: Pine Technical and Community College in Pine City (48.3 percent of students voting)

• 4-year public state university: Southwest Minnesota State University in Marshall (44.5 percent of students voting)

• 4-year public university: University of Minnesota, Twin Cities (52 percent of students voting)