The New Voters Project

What's New

The Student PIRGs' New Voters Project is the nation’s largest youth voter mobilization program. Since 2004, we have registered more than 700,000 young people and made more than 650,000 peer to peer voter turnout contacts to get young people to the polls on Election Day. Due in large part to our efforts, the youth vote increased by 4.3 million votes, or 9% in 2004 and an analysis of our work in 2006 found that in the student dense precincts in which we worked with our allies, youth voter turnout increased on average by 157%.

In 2008 we worked with more than 100 college campuses in 17 states. Learn more about The New Voters Project.

How You Can Help

To find out all the ways you can get involved, volunteer or otherwise participate in the New Voter's Project, please visit the Web site at www.newvotersproject.org.

Overview

The Student PIRGs’ New Voters Project is the country’s oldest and largest non-partisan youth voter mobilization campaign.

The Student PIRGs started the New Voters Project way back in 1983, about a decade after 18 year olds first got the right to vote, when it became clear that youth voter turnout was dangerously low. We cared about that because a democracy is strongest when citizens participate. If America’s youngest voters aren’t participating now, then our political system is in long-term trouble.

Since then, we’ve developed a proven model for increasing youth voter turnout. We’ve shown how voter registration drives and personalized Election Day reminders can boost the youth vote. We’ve shown how anyone at any skill level or experience can run a great voter mobilization program at any scale – on one campus, or on 200 campuses in 25 states. Our work has been studied extensively by social scientists, and reviewed by political operatives from both political parties. And we’ve trained some of the nation’s top leaders, including Heather Smith from Rock the Vote, Antonio Gonzales from Southwest Voter Project and Jessy Tolkan of the Energy Action Coalition.

Ours and others’ work is starting to pay off. After decades of decline, youth voter turnout is now increasing faster than the general population. In 2004, youth turnout increased by 11 percentage points over 2000. In 2006, the number of young people who vote increased by 2 million votes, while the general population’s increased only slightly. And turnout in the 2008 presidential contest to date, has been astonishing, with primary turnout figures doubling, tripling and quadrupling in many states.

This is all good news, but remember that even with these increases, only 42 percent of all eligible youth voted in 2004. So we still have lots of work to do.

Because voting at a young age promotes a lifelong habit of civic engagement, the New Voters Project works to increase voter participation among 18- to 24-year-olds. In 2004, youth turnout increased by 11 percent.

Results

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.

ISSUES