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The demands: The Kaiser employees — including therapists and social workers — say they’re fighting for better patient care. They said they’re not given enough time in the day to manage their caseload, which some therapists have said is 10 to 18 patients a day. They also want the HMO to restore pensions and agree to better pay.

Regulators watching: The California Department of Managed Health Care says it is monitoring access to behavioral health care at Kaiser. Regulators say they’ve set up a hotline for patients to call if they run into problems getting care. The hotline can be reached at (888) 466-2219

Kaiser response: In an emailed statement, Kaiser claimed the union was “putting pickets before patients.” The HMO is required by law to ensure that services continue during the work stoppage. It said all Kaiser members will continue to have timely access to individual therapy appointments throughout the strike.

Go deeper: Kaiser mental health workers could strike tomorrow. What does that mean for patients?

Empanadas have firmly earned their place in Los Angeles’ vibrant food community as a beloved savory — and in some cases, sweet — quick bite.

From traditional Argentine recipes to Venezuelan and Colombian flavors, these handheld pastries have won over food lovers across the city.

Here are five standout empanada spots we highly recommend checking out, each offering their own unique take on the South American staple.

Nonna’s Empanadas

Tomato, beef and veggie empanadas from Nonna’s Empanadas.

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Courtesy Nonna's Empanadas

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With more than 30 flavors to choose from, Nonna’s Empanadas offers something for every palate — from savory fillings like beef, chicken, and spinach to sweet ones like Nutella and apple. What I love about them the most is that they’re perfectly stuffed and oven-baked, just like the empanadas I ate as a child in Buenos Aires.

“I grew up with empanadas being a staple,” said Eduardo Ekmekgian, owner of Nonna’s Empanadas and son of its founder. “People like my family have one day a week where they have empanadas.”

The late Mario Ekmekgian, a lifelong entrepreneur, teamed up in 2010 with his business partner and longtime friend from Argentina, Graciella Boltiansky, to open Nonna’s first location at West 3rd Street and Holt Avenue in West Hollywood. Before that, Ekmekgian had been selling empanadas at farmers’ markets across Los Angeles.

“There were definitely growing pains in the beginning,” Ekmekgian said. “We only had about nine empanada flavors, and we were experimenting with tablecloths, ceramic plates, premium desserts, even choripans, Argentinian pizza and milanesas. We were just trying things to see what worked. But our foundation was always the empanadas, and as we added more flavors, we kept fine-tuning the brand and the business model.”

Ekmekgian and his family are of Armenian ancestry and lived in Argentina before moving to the U.S. in 1987. The name for Nonna’s was inspired by Ekmegian’s grandmother, but also the idea that “everybody has a nonna” that cooks for them or in his case made him empanadas.

“We started with classics like beef, which has hard-boiled egg and olive, chicken, spinach, and corn,” he said. “From there, we experimented a lot — Korean-inspired empanadas, Philly cheesesteak, and Latin flavors like carnitas. Empanadas are very versatile, you can take flavors from anywhere and put them in a dough pocket. That’s the fun of it.”

Ekmekgian said their savory empanadas remain the most popular, but they’re still experimenting with sweet varieties and planning to introduce new flavors.

“Beef has always been number one,” he said. “We’re working on new sweet flavors, like strawberry cheesecake and pineapple cream. Sweet ones don’t usually outsell the savory, because people eat multiples of the savory flavors, then maybe add a few sweets.”

Looking ahead, Ekmekgian said he’s often asked about franchising, but he wants to take his time before making that decision.

“There’s a process to growing the brand,” he said. “I want to fine-tune the model so every location is consistent and the quality and experience stay the same. My hope is that everyone tries empanadas for the first time and thinks, ‘Wow, I want this every week with my family or friends.’”

Rincon Chileno

Rincón Chileno's spinach empanadas (left) and beef empanadas, also known as empanada de pino.

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Marina Peña

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LAist

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The classic Chilean empanada de pino (or de carne) is thick, hearty and generously filled. Unlike many other South American empanadas, which tend to be smaller, the Chilean empanada is large and immediately stands out. Juicy and substantial, it can easily serve as a complete meal all on its own.

Ricardo Flores, owner of Rincon Chileno on Melrose since 1973, immigrated to Los Angeles from Santiago, Chile, in 1972 and opened the restaurant with the goal of introducing L.A. to the empanada as much as to tacos or pupusas.

“I think the empanada competes with the best taco or the best pupusa, so I would love for it to become just as popular, for everyone to know of this food that comes from all over South America,” he said.

The restaurant is known for their empanadas de pino, which are filled with beef, onion, salt and pepper, oregano, a touch of cumin and garlic. The dough is made from flour, milk, eggs, butter and a mix of seasonings.

Flores credits the empanadas’ juiciness to the fat in the meat and the generous amount of onions in the filling. Adding even more richness is the pebre, a traditional Chilean sauce poured over the filling. Flores shared that their version includes jalapeños, cilantro, green bell peppers, salt, garlic, olive oil and onions.

“An empanada de pino with pebre and red wine is the perfect combination for lunch,” Flores said. “A single empanada will satisfy you.”

Sabor Colombiano

Chicken empanadas from Sabor Colombiano in Westlake.

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Marina Peña

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What happens when you take traditional fried Colombian empanadas and add a touch of L.A.’s Mexican influence? If you ask Dario Garcia, owner of the Colombian restaurant Sabor Colombiano, the result might just be the ideal empanada.

“The perfect Colombian combination is a chicken empanada with chili, rice on the side, and an iced coffee,” Garcia said. “And thanks to the Mexican-American influence here, our chili is spicier than you might expect.”

Garcia explained that their famous empanadas de carne are made with cornmeal dough and a filling of shredded beef and potatoes. They’re fried for four to five minutes, resulting in a crunchy texture similar to the empanadas you’d find in Cali, in the Valle del Cauca region of western Colombia.

“In el Valle del Cauca, restaurants offer a range of chili sauces, varying in heat, and we do the same,” Garcia said. “An empanada isn’t an empanada without chili.”

Another popular addition is the salsa rosada, a pink sauce from Bogotá made with mayonnaise and ketchup.

Garcia adds that part of what makes Colombian empanadas special is the way local people eat them — a tradition he encourages others to try.

“A Colombian takes a bite from the bottom tip of the empanada, then adds chili as they go,” Garcia said. “In Colombia, we say true love isn’t shown with a kiss or marriage, but by giving your loved one the bottom tip of your empanada.”

Fuegos

Fuegos’s ham and cheese, vegan beef and mushroom and spinach empanadas.

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Courtesy Fuegos LA

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At Fuegos, empanadas take center stage. The menu features eight oven-baked varieties, including ham and cheese, chicken, hand-cut beef, cheese and onion, caprese, vegan beef, spinach and mushroom and humita corn. The beef empanada, with its rich filling of onions, red bell peppers, and spices, delivers a smoky warmth that recalls the flavors of Buenos Aires.

“What differentiates us from other Argentinian restaurants in L.A. is our attention to detail, the quality of our ingredients, and our service,” said Federico Laboreau, the co-owner of Fuegos. “The ingredients are simple, but we make sure they’re high quality.”

Whether you enjoy them fresh at the restaurant, take them to go, or bake one of their frozen 12-packs at home, their empanadas won’t disappoint.

After more than a decade as a production designer in Hollywood, Federico Laboreau and his partner Maximilian Pizzi took a bold turn in April 2024 and opened their own Argentinian restaurant in South L.A. The shift came after work dried up for them following the 2023 SAG-AFTRA and Writers Guild strikes.

“After the strikes, we took a trip to Japan for my birthday, expecting Hollywood to be back in full swing by the time we returned and that we’d be busy with work," Laboreau said. "When that didn’t happen, we asked ourselves, ‘What do we do to get our economy going again?’ So we started making empanadas. We started making them at home, and from there, all our Argentine friends started buying from us.”

Whether you enjoy them fresh at the restaurant, take them to go, or bake one of their frozen 12-packs at home, their empanadas won’t disappoint.

Pao’s Pastries & Cafe

The salteñas at Pao’s Pastries & Cafe, the Bolivian café in Van Nuys.

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Marina Peña

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LAist

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The first thing to know about the empanadas at Pao's Pastries & Cafe — one of the only Bolivian places that shows up in the L.A. area on Google Maps — is that while they may look like empanadas you’ve had in other countries, in Bolivia they aren’t actually called empanadas at all — they’re salteñas. Salteñas are a uniquely Bolivian baked pastry with a rich interior that almost resembles a portable stew when you bite into it.

The name “salteña” comes from the city of Salta in Argentina and is tied to Juana Manuela Gorriti, an Argentinian writer who was Bolivia’s first lady between 1848 and 1855. She helped popularize the dish in her adopted country, and over time the name shifted from meaning “the woman from Salta” to referring to the pastry itself.

Salteñas are known for their distinctive repulgue, the finely crimped seam that runs across the top of the pastry like a little crown, sealing in all the juicy goodness. They’re typically bigger than Argentinian empanadas, smaller than Chilean empanadas but just as generously stuffed — and with Pao’s you’ll definitely feel full after just one.

At Pao’s, which opened in 2015, the salteñas are filled with a savory blend of tender meat (often chicken or beef) and vegetables. They carry a juicy broth inside the filling, giving them a soupy texture in the center.

The salteñas take about three to four days to make, compared to maybe a couple of hours for Argentinian empanadas. The meat and vegetables are cooked and then refrigerated before adding them to the dough so the pastry holds its shape and structure. The filling typically includes meat, potato, peas, and carrots — all seasoned to balance savory richness with a hint of sweetness.

Beyond salteñas, Pao’s also serves other Bolivian favorites like silpancho, (a breaded and fried beef steak) hearty soups, cheese empanadas, and sweet treats like alfajores (sandwich cookies)— making it one of the few spots in Los Angeles where you can savor the range of Bolivian cuisine without hopping on a flight.

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

For single Angelenos, dating in L.A. can feel a little like going to a Dodgers game by yourself. Despite being surrounded by people in every direction, somehow, you’re still completely alone.

Enter Drafted, a three-year-old singles event series built around a simple truth: plenty of Angelenos who love sports are also looking for love. Drafted brings them together for a low-stakes, enjoyable experience where you can have a few drinks among fellow singles, take in a Dodgers game and potentially meet your soulmate — all in the span of a few hours.

While each Drafted event looks slightly different — including yacht and Halloween parties, as well as events around LAFC and Galaxy games — they all involve the same basic principles: single men and women (as close to a 50/50 ratio as possible) buy tickets to share space while enjoying a sporting event, with icebreaker games and drinks flowing. 

For Dodgers home games, Drafted events include three connected parts: a pregame party at a bar, the Dodgers game itself, and Drafted After Dark, a postgame party at a bar or club open to anyone, regardless of attendance at earlier events. 

The name Drafted is a play on professional sports drafts, in which teams select newcomers for their rosters, and its tongue-in-cheek marketing features sports-inspired copy. Its website urges Angelenos that “it’s time to get drafted,” and encourages them to “stop being a free agent” by getting off the apps “and into the singles section.” For those tired of striking out online, it offers a fun way to potentially meet the love of their life.

Part one: Meet-cute

Singles from a Drafted Dodgers event, pose for a selfie at Dodger Stadium.

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Nick Ducassi

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Any fan of baseball movies is familiar with the sport’s ability to generate life metaphors, and they can easily be adapted to the pursuit of romance: You can’t meet somebody if you don’t step up to the plate; you gotta see a lot of bad pitches to know which to swing at; and sometimes you’re going to strike out no matter how hard you swing. To paraphrase A League of Their Own, while there’s no crying in baseball, there is sometimes crying in dating.

Drafted’s creation in 2024 was personal for founder Jillian Pfeiffer, an avid Dodgers fan who had spent more than a decade unsuccessfully searching for a partner via dating apps. Pfeiffer told The LA Local that apps make dating, “feel very superficial, very shallow” because hopefuls are “judging based off of a few pictures and a few key facts.” 

Then she had an epiphany while attending a game: she was surrounded by thousands of men, but she had no way of knowing which ones were actually single. What if she could fix that?

Pfeiffer leveraged her experience as a business consultant and created Drafted in April 2024.

“[Drafted clients] are looking for real relationships,” Pfeiffer explained. “This isn’t just casual dating.”

Pfeiffer herself is living proof that it works. She met her fiancé, Alex Martinez at one of the first Drafted events. 

“One night changed everything for me,” Martinez told The LA Local. He is Pfeiffer’s right-hand man in more ways than one. In addition to being her fiancé, he helps with the events, playing affable host, introducing nervous singles to one another and keeping the good times moving. 

Pfeiffer rattled off other Drafted successes with ease: “We have a couple who had a baby. They’re the sweetest family. We have another engaged couple, and several couples who have moved in together, live together and are planning a future together.” 

Pfeiffer said they have a waitlist of more than 200 women for every stadium game. She also joked that since she started Drafted two baseball seasons ago, the Dodgers have won the World Series twice.

To get an inside look at a Drafted event, The LA Local went to Opening Day weekend at Dodger Stadium, for a matchup between the Dodgers and the Diamondbacks — and a bit of matchmaking for 100 L.A. singles. 

Part two: The prospects

Fans in the unofficial singles section during a Drafted Dodgers event at Dodger Stadium.

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Nick Ducassi

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The event began with a three-hour pregame party at Audio Graph Beer Co. in downtown Los Angeles.

By the time the DJ was blasting reggaeton and hip-hop and the icebreaker games were underway, the room had the unique energy of a place where everyone wants something — and nobody quite wants to admit it.

Everyone’s headshot is mounted on a board for participants to check out their prospects. There is bass thumping from speakers and there’s a scavenger hunt energy underway. 

Several attendees walked around wielding Drafted bingo cards, which nudged singles to start conversations with prompts and dares, such as finding someone wearing a specific Dodgers jersey or offering fries to a stranger.

As Drafted founder Pfeiffer explained, the games exist “just to force people to make conversation with one another so it doesn’t feel like a sixth-grade dance where men are on one side and women on the other.”

Between the $30 pre-party, the $100-plus Dodgers ticket, parking and other drinks and meals, attendees spent around $200 for the whole experience.

Many at the March event told The LA Local it was the first singles event they had ever attended, and all expressed similar dismay with the state of dating in 2026. 

For 26-year-old Javier Muñoz, one of the younger attendees who had been single for over two years, the appeal was simple: He would “love to be cuffed up.” 

A couple of hours into the pregame festivities, he believed he’d made the right call. “So far, I give it a 10 out of 10,” he said. “The host, everyone’s been pretty nice, pretty cool. It’s outdoors, they got food, got drinks, got games. Overall, I recommend it.”

Katie, 35, another Drafted first-timer, decided to come out because “the apps are boring and kind of outdated. I miss meeting people at bars.” 

“It’s rough in these streets,” she joked. 

Katie must have been especially motivated considering she’s a lifelong Phillies fan — not that she’d let someone’s love of the Dodgers get in the way of a genuine connection. “I mean, I love a little conflict,” she explained. “We can duke it out (in) the playoffs.”

Itzel, 30, said she was seeking “a genuine connection” above all. She added that the vibe of the night really stood out to her. “The community here, the people are just, like, so inviting.”

She described online dating as “a big negative” and said most people on the apps seemed to be there “to kill time.”

Raquel, who describes herself as “30-ish” and looking for a long-term commitment — including a husband — blamed the apps for creating too many options and too little seriousness. 

“Nobody really wants to commit,” she said.

Katie, Itzel and Raquel declined to give a full name for privacy reasons. 

Raquel said she’s tried to meet men through hobbies like walking clubs, running clubs and ceramics classes but hadn’t had much luck. What was she hoping to find at the Drafted event? “Shared values, honesty, loyalty and humor — the old-fashioned stuff.”

Once everyone’s courage was suitably liquefied, the group of 100-plus headed to Dodger Stadium. 

Part Three: Game time

Singles from a Drafted Dodgers event, pose for a selfie at Dodger Stadium.

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Nick Ducassi

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The LA Local

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The singles gathered in the Pavilion section in the outfield — what Drafted calls “The Singles Section” — several rows of bleachers that make it easy to swap seats and sidle up to someone you’ve got your eye on. 

As the game wore on and the drinks kept flowing, most attendees seemed to give into the laid-back atmosphere. After all, even the shyest in the group would be hard-pressed to have a bad time watching back-to-back world champions under the night sky.

While none of the people we chatted with appeared to be making specific progress with any fellow prospects, flirtatious vibes and light conversation filled the singles section. Luckily for the romantic hopefuls, the night still had plenty of hours left to come.

In the bottom of the eighth inning, the Dodgers were down 2-1 when catcher Will Smith — who hit a decisive 11th-inning home run in the 2025 World Series — stepped to the plate. 

Over 400 feet away in the outfield section, more than 100 single Angelenos in their 30s and 40s watched with bated breath. Smith rewarded their hope by rocketing a two-run home run to center field, delivering a Dodgers win and a metaphor as clear as the Echo Park night sky: As long as they stepped up to the plate, they were never out of the game.

It was just the shot of confidence the Drafted hopefuls needed as they prepared for the event’s final chapter, Drafted After Dark, set to go down at Los Globos dance club in Echo Park. As they shuffled to the exits, the excitement was palpable. In life, as in baseball, who doesn’t love extra innings? 

At the after-hours party, we did spot some people making connections, by which we mean, of course, making out. We won’t name names — mostly because it was hard to see in the dim lights of the Los Globos dance floor — out of respect for people’s privacy. 

But let’s just say that at Drafted After Dark, anything can happen — including meeting the love of your life in real life, no swiping required.

Singles from a Drafted Dodgers event, dance at an after party in Echo Park.

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Nick Ducassi

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The LA Local

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After the 2022 midterm election, a gap appeared to be shrinking on U.S. college campuses.

The turnout rate for student voters at community colleges was catching up with the rate at public four-year institutions, data suggested. What was a gap of 9 percentage points for the 2020 election had shrunk to just 3 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 boosting civic engagement on campuses.

"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.

But that data is now on ice.

In March, researchers at Tufts University announced that they've halted releasing statistics from the go-to source of school-level data on student voter registration and turnout — the National Study of Learning, Voting and Engagement. And the key source of student information needed to produce NSLVE reports, the National Student Clearinghouse, pulled out of working on the study going forward, after a more than decade-long partnership.

It's all part of the fallout from an extraordinary investigation into the study by the Trump administration's Education Department.

In a press release touting it as a move to "protect" the integrity of U.S. elections, Trump officials said they launched the probe in February to look into unspecified "reports" that NSLVE is in violation of a federal student data privacy law.

Many privacy experts, however, are skeptical of the accusations, which echo claims first raised by right-wing election activists.

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

Still, school administrators and other student voting advocates tell NPR they're already feeling the impact of the Trump administration's investigation in a midterm election year. The loss of data from new NSLVE reports has left the over 1,000 colleges and universities that participate in the study in the dark, as they try to figure out how to increase turnout among the voting-age cohort that is least likely to cast ballots in the United States.

A focus of right-wing election activists became an Education Department probe

So far, the Education Department has not identified the source of what it described as "multiple reports alleging that the process of compiling NSLVE data involves illegally sharing college students' data with third parties to influence elections."

The department's press office declined to comment to NPR.

But Cleta Mitchell — a Republican election lawyer who took part in President Donald Trump's failed attempt to overturn the 2020 election — revealed a backstory during an online meeting of right-wing election activists in March.

In 2023, a fellow activist named Heather Honey, Mitchell explained, posted online a document she wrote about NSLVE. It claims that colleges and universities appear to violate the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act when they give the National Student Clearinghouse permission to share their student enrollment records for the study. The document also raises suspicion about Catalist, a Democratic-aligned data firm that was once involved with the study. The firm compiles public voter records from states and previously gave them to the clearinghouse to match with student information.

Tufts has maintained that its study is designed to comply with the privacy law.

Last year, Honey was appointed as the deputy assistant secretary for elections integrity at the Department of Homeland Security.

Heather Honey leaves the federal courthouse in Harrisburg, Pa., in 2024. The right-wing election activist wrote a document criticizing the National Study of Learning, Voting and Engagement before she was appointed deputy assistant secretary for elections integrity at the Department of Homeland Security.

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Mark Scolforo

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"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 of the meeting uploaded by a group called Pure Integrity Michigan Elections.

Mitchell went on to describe the National Student Clearinghouse's decision to stop its work on NSLVE as "100% the result of the work" of Honey and activists in Michigan.

"And so that's a real victory lap and one that I think we ought to celebrate," Mitchell added.

Mitchell and Catalist did not respond to NPR's inquiries. Honey referred questions to DHS' public affairs office, which said in an unsigned statement to NPR: "Heather Honey has not had involvement with the Department of Education's investigation. Her 2023 report is PUBLIC."

Brendan Fischer, who tracks the far-right election activist movement, sees Mitchell's comments as the latest connection between the activists and the Trump administration.

"This really shows the power and influence that a network of election conspiracy theorists are having over government policy and over the way that elections are run and civic participation is studied," says Fischer, the director of strategic investigations at the Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan voting rights group.

Since the 2020 election, Mitchell and other activists have built a grassroots network that's often attacked efforts to encourage voting among populations that they perceive support the Democratic Party. During the March meeting of Michigan activists, Mitchell criticized efforts to boost student participation in elections as attempts to "really gin up the Democratic turnout on college campuses."

On the same day as Mitchell's comments, another opponent of NSLVE publicly hailed the end of the National Student Clearinghouse's involvement with the study — the America First Policy Institute, a right-wing think tank set up by former members of the first Trump administration, including McMahon, the current education secretary.

"AFPI is encouraged that students are finally being protected," said Anna Pingel, a campaign director at the think tank, in a statement that called the development "an important step toward ensuring that sensitive student data is not exploited for political purposes." The statement also said that AFPI sent a letter to the Education Department earlier this year with concerns about NSLVE and potential violations of student data privacy protections.

Fischer at the Campaign Legal Center — whose attorneys have filed multiple lawsuits against the Trump administration — points out that Trump officials are investigating NSLVE at the same time the administration faces multiple legal challenges to its murky handling of people's data, including state voter registration, Social Security and IRS records.

"There is a certain irony in the Trump administration repeatedly violating privacy laws and then turning around and shutting down this program studying college student participation in democracy, by arguing that it may have violated federal privacy law," Fischer says.

Colleges face tough decisions about whether and how to promote student voting

The Education Department in February sent a guidance letter to colleges and universities that advises school administrators to hold off on using "any NSLVE report or data this year" until the department's investigation is complete. The letter mentions the "number of enforcement options" the department could use against schools that are found to violate privacy law, including withholding or clawing back federal funding.

Amanda Fuchs Miller, who served as deputy assistant secretary for higher education programs at the Education Department during the Biden administration, sees the move as a "scare tactic."

"It's very unusual to send out a letter like that when there are no findings and nobody is found to have done anything wrong," Miller says. "A lot of these schools are small schools, community colleges, under-resourced institutions that may not have a general counsel's office to figure out what this means. And if they get this letter and they think it's putting them at risk, their Title IV funds at risk, their federal financial aid for students at risk, this [study] would be the first to go, which would be an understandable immediate reaction if you don't know what it really means."

Jackson State University students sign up to vote in Jackson, Miss., on National Voter Registration Day in 2023.

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Rogelio V. Solis

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AP

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Before the current Trump administration, the department has historically kept its data privacy investigations off the public's radar to try to encourage schools to more quickly correct any violations, explains Amelia Vance, a student data privacy expert who leads the Public Interest Privacy Center.

"It's really unusual to have these investigations talked about, announced, confirmed across the board," Vance says.

And if there are indeed any violations, the department could try to find ways to allow for the study to continue because, Vance adds, "the way the law was written, it gives a ton of discretion to the Department of Ed in order to allow for flexibility."

But for now, Melissa Michelson — dean of arts and sciences at Menlo College, a Hispanic-serving and Asian American, Native American and Pacific Islander-serving institution in California's Silicon Valley that has participated in NSLVE — says many school administrators are bracing for potential tough decisions.

"I'm a political scientist and I believe strongly that everybody should vote," says Michelson, whose research focuses on voter mobilization. "But if I have to choose between being financially responsible and ensuring that Menlo College can stay open because our students can receive Pell Grants or continuing to participate in NSLVE and getting this data to inform our civic engagement coalition, I'm going to pick financial responsibility every time."

And in the middle of a midterm election year, schools that do decide to carry out their plans to mobilize student voters will be forging ahead with out-of-date data.

"That's troubling because for most schools, this is an iterative learning process," Michelson says. "You do something in one year, you get your data back and you see, 'Hey, what looks different? Did we get better in getting out the vote among our male first-year students? How are we doing with those business majors?' Without feedback from what they did in 2024, it makes it more challenging for schools to decide what to do in 2026."

The NSLVE investigation is not the first time colleges have struggled with Trump administration guidance on student voter registration

Miller, the former Biden official, notes that many college administrators were already having a hard time interpreting earlier guidance from the Trump administration on student voter registration.

Last August, the Education Department issued a letter saying that to avoid "aiding and abetting voter fraud," schools "may limit the list of recipients" when distributing mail voter registration forms so students who schools have reason to believe aren't eligible to vote aren't included. Federal law, however, requires certain higher education institutions participating in federal student aid programs to "make a good faith effort" to distribute forms "to each student enrolled in a degree or certificate program and physically in attendance at the institution, and to make such forms widely available to students at the institution."

The same letter also said schools cannot use federal work-study funding to employ students to help register voters or assist at the polls. But the department's Federal Student Aid Handbook does not include that restriction for students employed by schools for on-campus work.

"This has caused lots of confusion for schools and a chilling effect in doing critical work that promotes voting among college students," Miller says.

A group of Senate Democrats led by Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey has asked the Education Department to reconsider its August guidance, which they say "undermines decades of bipartisan recognition that encouraging voter registration is a core public interest function of institutions of higher education."

Edited by Benjamin Swasey
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