This repository contains the data for the Student Turnout and Engagement Project (STEP), which collects statistics for early votes cast at on-campus polling places at Florida colleges and universities since 2018.
The Florida Secretary of State, through the Division of Elections, issued an advisory opinion in 2014 holding that on-campus buildings could not used for early voting. Students at the University of Florida and Florida State University, supported by the Andrew Goodman Foundation and the League of Women Voters of Florida, sued to invalidate the opinion.
During a 2018 trial, U.S. District Court Judge Mark Walker considered if the opinion "categorically bar[ring] early voting on any university or college campus violate[d] the First, Fourteenth, and Twenty-Sixth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution." Walker ruled the opinion was unconstitutional as "[t]hrowing up roadblocks in front of younger voters does not remotely serve the public interest." Walker held that the Secretary erred in interpreting Florida’s election statutes to prohibit campus buildings from being used for early voting.
Following Walker's ruling, Florida supervisors of election were empowered to provide early voting on college and university campuses beginning with the 2018 midterm election. Twelve schools—Edward Waters College (EWC), Florida A&M University (FAMU), Florida Atlantic University (FAU), Florida International University (FIU), Florida State University (FSU), Miami-Dade College (Kendall and North campuses), Nova Southeastern University (NSU), University of Central Florida (UCF), University of Florida (UF), University of North Florida (UNF), University of South Florida (USF), and University of West Florida (UWF)—organized early voting locations in 2018. In the ensuing years, nearly twenty total campuses—public and private—across the state have hosted early voting locations.
This repository contains the data for . Data is collected from supervisors of election in the respective counties in which on-campus early voting polling places have been located at Florida colleges and universities. CSV files provide data for the 2018, 2020, 2022, and 2024 November general elections. Files contain the distribution of votes cast at each campus location (2018, 2020, 2022, 2024), as well as a breakdown of votes by date (2020, 2024) and by party registration (2024). Some data is presented here.
Please note that polling locations and campuses are not consistent across elections. For example: (1) FAMU and FSU shared a polling site in 2018 but had independent sites in 2020; (2) EWC and UNF did not have an on-campus polling place in 2020 or 2020; and (3) FAU's main Boca Raton campus hosted a location between 2018 and 2022, but only it's Jupiter campus held one in 2022 and 2024. Furthermore, supervisors of election present data differently in each county and across elections. Efforts are ongoing to ensure the completeness and accuracy of data. If you discover any errors, please let us know.
Student Turnout and Engagement Project by Stephen C. Phillips is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International 
