2008 Election
New Voter’s Project organizers and students employed a wide variety of old-fashioned pavement-pounding with new tech tools—from Facebook to "text out the vote" tables—to urge young people to get to the polls. In part due to our work, young voter turnout surged more than 2.2 million votes compared to 2004 levels. For the first time in 20 years, the young voter share (18- to 24-year-olds) of the electorate surpassed that of voters over 65.
2008 Primaries
In the summer of 2007, we launched our "What’s Your Plan?" campaign. We used fundraisers, town hall meetings and photo ops in the early primary states to ask the candidates to talk to young people about the issues we care about. Pairing new technology with classic organizing, we also launched big voter registration and get-out-the-vote drives across the country to show that on-the-ground efforts to reach young voters work. Across the country, we mobilized 500 volunteers in 28 states to ask the candidates about their plans on issues such as global warming, college affordability, health care and financial security. We also recruited and trained 250 "Caucus Rock Stars" in Iowa to mobilize 5,000 of their peers. In part due to our efforts, youth turnout more than doubled in the 2008 primaries.
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.
