What information do college students need to make informed and educated choices on election day?

My team and I's research aimed to investigate what information college students need to make informed decisions on election day. We developed a structured interview protocol to explore how students at CU Boulder seek political information and what factors influence their voting choices.

The data collection involved conducting interviews with college students to identify their preferred sources for political information and the aspects they deem essential for making informed electoral decisions. Each team member transcribed their interviews and derived codes to categorize the data systematically.

These codes were organized in Miro, facilitating the identification of common themes across all interviews. We produced theme memos and attached significant quotes to illustrate our findings. Notable themes emerged, including a general disinterest in politics among some students, the influence of social media on political perceptions, and the prevalence of diverse information sources.

Our findings highlighted several critical insights: many students at CU Boulder are either unfamiliar with the voting process or lack regular voting habits, with a significant portion coming from out of state or country and feeling uncertain about where to find reliable political information. Furthermore, a reliance on social media as a primary information source was prevalent, shaping students' political perspectives.

This research underscores the need for targeted educational resources to assist students in navigating the political landscape and making informed voting decisions, especially among first-time voters or new residents of Colorado.