Youth Vote on the Rise!
Something big is happening in our democracy – young people are voting. Already, young people turned out in record numbers at the nation’s first caucus and primary contests of 2008. The youth vote almost doubled in New Hampshire, tripled in Iowa and quadrupled in Tennessee.
Right here in Arizona, the energy among students was palpable.
For 25 years, Arizona PIRG and our sister Student PIRGs across the country have worked to mobilize young voters to the polls to reinvigorate our country’s democracy.
Since 2004, Arizona PIRG, in coalition with the Arizona Students’ Association and the student governments from Arizona’s public universities, has registered 7,400 18-30 year olds and made nearly 10,000 personalized, peer to peer contacts to turn young people out to the polls.
In 2006 midterm election cycle, Arizona PIRG New Voters Project partnered with the Arizona Students Association and the student governments from all four-year public universities in the state (Arizona State University; University of Arizona and Northern Arizona University) to launch the Arizona Student Vote Coalition.
Over the course of the midterm campus voter mobilization drive, Arizona PIRG New Voters Project organizers worked with a diverse coalition to establish and implement a plan to mobilize young voters to the polls, build campus buzz and register more than 4,000 students on campuses across the state.
The project works.
An analysis of our work found that young people contacted by Arizona PIRG’s/Student PIRGs’ New Voters Project turned out at a rate 13 percentage points higher than a group of demographically similar individuals who also registered to vote within six months of the election.
In part due to our work, in 2006, young voter turnout (18-29 year olds) in Arizona rose by 9 percent, or 71,000 votes, over 2002 turnout. (Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement)
As part of the Arizona Student Vote coalition, we worked around the clock to mobilize students at the Arizona State University system to turn out to vote.
UA Preps for Primary Elections - January 28, 2007
Read more about our work in Arizona and across the country to turn out the youth vote in the election so far and our plans for the coming months here.
