Young people are poised to make an enormous impact on the political landscape for all sorts of reasons….
We’re the Millennial Generation. We’re different than those before us, and we’re inevitably going to shake things up because…

• We’re larger than the Baby Boomers
• We share more progressive values than the general population (we prioritize healthcare more than seniors!?)
• The Millennials are the most diverse generation by far, with almost 40 percent belonging to minority groups, Hispanics in particular.
• And finally, we will be 1/3 of the electorate by 2016. So just how we want to shake things up, is up to us. That is, if we all register and vote.

Why Building Votes?

Registration vs. Turnout. Oftentimes, for young people, the difficulty is with registration, not with turnout. The best (and simplest) way to increase turnout, is to increase young voters registered.

• In presidential elections since 1972 (with one exception), whenever the youth voter registration rate rose from one election year to the next, the youth voter turnout also increased.

Young People are disenfranchised. Registration can be a tricky step, as voting systems often disenfranchise young voters in obscure ways.

• In Oregon, vote by mail requires that you reregister every time you move. About 84% of young people are renters and 73% or renters move each year (compared to 14% of the general population)
• In Indiana stringent voter ID laws disenfranchise more than a few segments of the population.

Voting is habit-forming. Young people get a bad rap about voting, but really, they’re just not very good at it yet.The number one indicator if someone is going to vote in an election is if they voted in the previous election. Young people haven’t had the time to develop the habit yet; they’re just not as good at it yet!

Use proven methods.

• Research has decisively indicated that young people turn out in bigger numbers if they are asked to vote, and targeted by non-partisan and partisan voter mobilization efforts
• “So far, the best answers [for how to mobilize the youth vote] lie in targeted, peer-to-peer efforts” (Post, Tina, Dave Rosenfeld and Ben Unger. “Today’s Youth Vote: Why the Advantage May Be Tipping Towards the MySpace Generation.” 26 September 2006.

“…The Millennial Generation will entirely recast the image of youth from downbeat and alienated to upbeat and engaged—with potentially seismic consequences for America.” - Neil Howe and William Strauss from “Millennials Rising.”

More resources on Millennials and the youth vote:

CIRCLE (www.civicyouth.org)
New Politics Institute Report: The Progressive Politics of the Millennial Generation
New Voters Project on Millennial Generation Civic Behavior