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Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon visited campus October 23 to present St. Olaf College with the Democracy Cup, an award that celebrates the fact that Oles had the highest voting rate of any college in Minnesota in the last election.

Simon noted in his remarks that while he was presenting an award for the highest voting rate in the state, St. Olaf also won a national award for having the highest voting rate of the more than 500 colleges and universities across the country that participated in the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge.

“This campus has really been a leader — not just in voting, but in civic engagement,” Simon told the crowd that gathered for the award presentation. “In Minnesota, we vote consistently in really large numbers. And you blew the rest of Minnesota out of the water.”

He presented the Democracy Cup to Professor of Political Science Chris Chapp and Academic Civic Engagement Program Director Alyssa Melby, who lead the college’s voter engagement work that includes 120 student election ambassadors, and President Susan Rundell Singer.

“It’s my honor and privilege to present the Democracy Cup to St. Olaf College,” Simon said. “Thank you for your shining example.”

Simon wasn’t the only one drawn to campus recently by the college’s impressive voter engagement efforts. NBC News also visited campus in recent weeks to highlight the efforts that propelled nearly 90 percent of St. Olaf students to vote in the last presidential election — and the work under way to ensure that Oles are just as engaged this year.

“No other school in the country has higher turnout,” NBC reporter Joe Fryer says about St. Olaf. He interviewed some of the election ambassadors on campus and Chapp to learn how their efforts to drive students to the polls are paying off in a big way. Watch the full story here.

“This campus has really been a leader — not just in voting, but in civic engagement. In Minnesota, we vote consistently in really large numbers. And you blew the rest of Minnesota out of the water.”

— Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon

At the Democracy Cup presentation, Chapp noted that Minnesota’s voter registration and voting laws — along with institutional support from St. Olaf leaders — are critical to the college’s success in getting students to the polls at rates far higher than other colleges and universities.

“The work of voting and democracy is so important to what we do here at St. Olaf,” says Chapp, who also serves as director of the St. Olaf Institute for Freedom and Community.

And it’s been work that St. Olaf students have long been committed to. Before presenting the Democracy Cup, Simon joined Flaten Art Museum Director Jane Becker Nelson ’04 for a tour of Practicing Democracy: 150 Years of St. Olaf Student Civic Engagement. The exhibit, on display as the college marks its sesquicentennial this fall, highlights the decades of engagement and activism that paved the way for St. Olaf to lead voter engagement among U.S. colleges and universities today.