Vote Oswego Founder Earns National Civic Engagement Award

Dr. Allison Rank, President Deborah F.Stanley, and students.

SUNY Oswego political science faculty member Dr. Allison Rank (front) takes a selfie with college President Deborah F. Stanley (front right) and student volunteers during a nonpartisan Vote Oswego “blitz week” event on campus prior to the 2016 presidential election.

SUNY Oswego political science professor Dr. Allison Rank, founder of the student-driven Vote Oswego voter mobilization campaign, won a national honor, the John Saltmarsh Award for Emerging Leaders in Civic Engagement, given by the American Democracy Project.

The award recognizes exemplary early-career leaders who are advancing the wider civic engagement movement through higher education to build a broader public culture of democracy. The American Democracy Project—a nonpartisan partnership of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities and The New York Times—is a consortium of more than 250 state colleges and universities focused on preparing the next generation of informed, engaged citizens.

Rank established Vote Oswego as a course, a voter registration drive and a voter mobilization campaign that emphasizes building civic awareness and political skills among students who represent the next generation of voting citizens. It focused first on the 2016 presidential election year and runs every two years during the national election cycle.

In 2016 and 2018, the nonpartisan campaign—with five student interns, more than 250 student volunteers each semester and Rank as campaign manager—registered over 2,000 students to vote and helped 2,500 students request absentee ballots.

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