The League of Women Voters Education Fund (LWVEF) and Project Vote are pleased to announce a major new initiative to bring more young people-especially young minorities-into the democratic process, and instill voting habits that will last a lifetime.
A joint-collaboration between our two organizations, the 2010 High School Voter Registration Project will be a nonpartisan high-school voter registration drive in 100 high schools with a high-percentage of minority students in five states: Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, and Texas. The Project will provide voter registration and education through classroom activities and assemblies, and expects to help 27,000 17- and 18-year olds apply to become registered voters.
Additionally, the Project will serve as a statistically significant experiment to determine the comparative effectiveness of registration strategies. In 50 of the schools the Project will utilize classroom-based voter registration strategies, in 50 schools it will use assemblies, and an additional 100 schools will be chosen as a control group. The resulting analysis will help determine the most effective strategies for engaging high school students and help inform future program activities.
The need to effectively reach out to newly eligible 18-year old citizens is great. In November 2008, despite some increase in participation among younger voters, more than half of all 18-year-old citizens in the United States were still not registered to vote. Overall, Americans under the age of 30 remain severely underrepresented in the electorate, and the disparities in youth voting grow even wider when looking at African-Americans, Latinos, and those with no college experience. These disparities in participation rates suggest that young people need a new mechanism by which they might take their place in the democratic process.
Voter registration is the key, of course, but most youth registration drives target college students, skewing towards the disproportionately White college population and completely missing the 43 percent of Americans with no college experience.
That’s why we believe it is vital to reach America’s future voters while they are still in high school, and that’s why we’ve launching the High School Voter Registration Project.
Research shows that it is possible to create long-term change by encouraging life-long participation from young people: 91 percent of registered voters under the age of 30 cast a ballot in 2008, and data from the Brookings Institute indicates that once a person votes in one election they are 29 percent more likely to vote in the next major election.
By connecting directly with the young citizens who make up the missing members of our national electorate, LWVEF and Project Vote are committed to engaging young citizens to believe not only in the power of their individual vote, but also in the power of our collective democracy. We look forward to keeping you informed on our progress together.