Trump Administration Freezes Student Voting Data After Right-Wing Activist Pressure Campaign

The Trump administration just kneecapped the main tool colleges use to get students to vote -- and it did so at the behest of a right-wing activist who tried to overturn the 2020 election.

In March, Tufts University announced it was halting the National Study of Learning, Voting and Engagement (NSLVE), the go-to source for school-level data on student voter registration and turnout. The National Student Clearinghouse, which has partnered with the study for over a decade, pulled out entirely. The reason: an Education Department investigation launched in February claiming the study violates federal student privacy law.

The department touted the probe as protecting "election integrity." But the accusations echo claims first raised by Heather Honey, a right-wing election activist who was later appointed deputy assistant secretary for elections integrity at the Department of Homeland Security.

A Backstory Revealed

The Education Department has not identified the source of what it called "multiple reports" alleging NSLVE illegally shares student data to influence elections. But Cleta Mitchell -- the Republican lawyer who participated in Trump's failed 2020 election overturn -- revealed the backstory during an online meeting of right-wing activists in March.

In 2023, Honey posted a document claiming colleges violate the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act when they share student enrollment records for the study. The document also raised suspicion about Catalist, a Democratic-aligned data firm that once compiled public voter records for NSLVE to match with student information.

"One of the things that she did was send over her report and a proposal to the Department of Education -- to Linda McMahon, the secretary of education -- to say, 'You've got to stop this,'" Mitchell said in a recording uploaded by Pure Integrity Michigan Elections.

Mitchell described the clearinghouse's withdrawal as "100% the result of the work" of Honey and Michigan activists. "And so that's a real victory lap and one that I think we ought to celebrate," she added.

Privacy Experts Are Skeptical

Both Tufts and the National Student Clearinghouse maintain they have not violated privacy law. Tufts emphasized that NSLVE, which started in 2013, is a nonpartisan study "that seeks to understand whether students vote, not who they vote for."

Many privacy experts are skeptical of the accusations. The study has operated for over a decade without controversy, providing aggregated, anonymized data to help schools understand voter turnout patterns.

The Education Department's press office declined to comment to NPR. Mitchell, Catalist, and Honey did not respond to inquiries, with Honey referring questions to DHS public affairs.

Real-World Impact on Campus Voting Efforts

The loss of NSLVE data is already hitting schools hard. Over 1,000 colleges and universities participate in the study, using its reports to identify gaps in student voter turnout and design targeted outreach.

After the 2022 midterms, NSLVE data revealed a promising trend: the turnout gap between community college students and those at four-year public institutions had shrunk from 9 percentage points in 2020 to just 3 points in 2022.

"This told us that we needed to be doing more to support community colleges in their efforts to engage their students," says Clarissa Unger, executive director of the Students Learn Students Vote Coalition, a nonpartisan network focused on campus civic engagement.

"We would love to be able to see the 2024 data to see if those extra efforts to support community colleges did help [fully] close that gap," Unger adds.

Now, in a midterm election year, schools are flying blind. They cannot see whether their efforts are working or where they need to focus resources. The timing is particularly damaging given that young voters are already the least likely age cohort to cast ballots in the United States.

A Pattern of Voter Suppression

The Trump administration's move fits a broader pattern of attacks on voting access. By targeting a study that helps colleges boost student turnout -- using accusations promoted by activists who tried to overturn a presidential election -- the administration is making it harder for young people to participate in democracy.

The fact that the person who pushed for the investigation now holds a position overseeing "elections integrity" at DHS should alarm anyone who cares about free and fair elections. This is not about protecting student privacy. It is about suppressing the student vote.

And it is working.