New Voters Project

What's New

On January 3, young voters in Iowa came out in force and made their voices heard. Youth turnout more than tripled at the caucuses and both caucus winners relied on youth voters for their victories- Obama won 57 percent of the youth vote, while Huckabee won 40 percent of the youth vote. Iowa PIRG students were critical in boosting the youth vote—personally contacting thousands of Iowa college students to turn out to vote.

Iowa PIRG and the New Voters Project's invovlement in the caucuses was also cited in stories on the Wired Blog Network and by the Associated Press.

How You Can Help

To find out all the ways you can get involved, volunteer or otherwise participate in the New Voters Project, please visit the Web site at www.newvotersproject.org.

The New Voters Project has been chosen as one of the groups that will receive donations through Working Assets this year. Working Assets customers can vote to increase the amount of support we’ll receive. By filling out the Working Assets 2007 Donations Ballot, you can vote to allocate this year’s funding to the New Voters Project. The distribution of funds is determined solely by how many votes each group receives. The more votes we get, the more funding we get. Vote now!

Overview

Something big is happening in our democracy—young people are voting. For the past three elections, they have turned out in big numbers. The evidence also shows that when politicians talk to young people, they will vote even more.

Young people will vote if the presidential candidates target them. Not just with big smiles and empty rhetoric, but with substance, engaging us in conversations about the issues they care about. Issues like global warming, college affordability, health care and financial security.

These are critical issues, and this is the generation who will be most affected by them. So they're going directly to the candidates and asking one simple question: “What’s Your Plan?” on global warming. On college affordability. On health care. And on financial security.

Kathleen Cogan, a campus organizer for Iowa PIRG, appeared in a video on WashingtonPost.com about the New Voter Project's "What's your Plan?" campaign. Watch the video.

Results

2006 Elections

In fall 2006, the Student PIRGs’ New Voters Project worked on 80 college campuses in 22 states to boost voter turnout. We forged alliances with student government leaders, faculty and administrators and recruited over 1,100 students to lead or volunteer on their campus. Our hardworking coalition partners and student leaders registered 75,000 students to vote. Leading up to Election Day, we made 94,000 personalized Get Out the Vote reminders either over the phone or face-to-face.

The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) measured the turnout increase between 2002 and 2006 in student-dense precincts where we and other partners focused our efforts. The analysis focused on a set of 36 precincts in Ohio, Connecticut, Iowa, Colorado, and Michigan and found that average turnout in those precincts increased by 157 percent over 2002. Nationally, the increase in youth voter turnout was four times the rate of the general population’s increase (4 percent for youth, 1 percent overall).

2005 Elections

The New Voters Project focused on youth voter registration and turnout in eight states in 2005. We registed over 18,000 voters and made more than 48,000 get-out-the-vote contacts.

An analysis of raw data by the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning & Engagement (CIRCLE) at the University of Maryland looked at turnout in New Jersey and Virginia, the two states with major off-year elections. Their study indicates that young people voted in bigger numbers in the gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia in 2005 than they did in 2001.

2004 Elections

In 2004, the New Voters Project succeeded in becoming the largest grassroots youth voter mobilization effort in this country's history. We registered over 500,000 18- to 24-year-olds to vote, and contacted more than 500,000 young registered voters during the get-out-the-vote phase of the campaign.

Our work helped stop the decline in youth voter turout. Surveys show that youth turnout increased to 47 percent—an eleven percentage point increase over 2000—with an astonishing 11.5 million 18-to-24 year-olds casting ballots.

ISSUES