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What is one of the most worrisome challenges facing all of us this year? Making sure young people turn out to vote in November. The good news is that young people who are registered to vote turn out at almost the same rate as older people do. The bad news is that so few young people are registered. Students for Voting Justice is going to do something about that.
This summer, we will implement a targeted voter registration project using postcards to reach 46,000 young, unregistered potential Georgia and North Carolina voters ages 18-34. These postcards will feature persuasive handwritten messaging about registering to vote, along with a QR code allowing the recipients to immediately access their state's voter registration website and learn about the candidates on their ballot. The postcards will be written and mailed by the volunteers recruited and supervised by our summer interns.
We have developed our mailing list for this project by purchasing commercial lists of NC and GA residents 18-34 and then removing all those already registered to vote. As these lists also include cell phone numbers for most people, SVJ interns will be able to follow up on their postcards with text reminders and further information.
This novel approach, combined with our intern-designed Instagram ads, is intended to drive high levels of youth voter registration and turnout in Georgia and North Carolina -- two of the states where youth voter turnout will be most important to the outcome of the 2024 election.
Because this is the first time we have tried a voter registration campaign of this type, combining outreach to unregistered youth with a printed QR code, we are going to conduct a study after the election to learn how successful it was. We will be able to match the names on our unregistered youth mailing list with subsequent voter registrations and, ultimately, turnout at the polls. If our postcard campaign is as successful as we hope it will be, it can be expanded into more states in the future.
Voter registration is one of the keys to achieving youth voter turn-out. When young people register to vote, they vote at almost the same rate that older voters do. Our summer campaign will increase youth voter registration in two of the most important states!!
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