Will 2020 Be The Year Of The Young Voter?

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Former first lady Michelle Obama, seen here at a rally in 2018, is the founder of When We All Vote, an organization that aims to help people register and vote.





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Joe Raedle/Getty Images



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One of her jobs was piloting a new messaging campaign.

«We’ll send our registration links and talk to people our age, Forbes says. «Just catalyzing that conversation with someone saying, ‘What matters to you? What do you want to see in the future? You have the opportunity to create that reality.'

Each registration link is tied to a volunteer’s portal, so students can track how many people they’ve personally helped register.

The campaign has sent over 90,000 direct messages and over five million texts to eligible voters.

Traditional outreach is still taking place, despite complications from the coronavirus pandemic.

«When I leave home, I make sure I have my mask, my hand sanitizer, and my flyers, Caprecia Miller says.

Miller, 49, has been volunteering with When We All Vote for months and says she tries to find creative ways to reach young people.





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Caprecia Miller is a voting squad captain with When We All Vote and is working to register people ahead of the election.





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As an outreach effort, When We All Vote teamed up with a text messaging platform to remind young voters to register.





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As an outreach effort, When We All Vote teamed up with a text messaging platform to remind young voters to register.


Courtesy of When We All Vote

But Hillygus says it’s not the presence of celebrities that’s truly impactful but what information they’re providing.

«Instead of telling people that voting is cool with having celebrities say they should go vote, maybe we need to send calendar reminders, maybe we need to to make sure that young people are very aware of what the process is.

Beyond ‘bubble sheet’ civics

Hillygus says programs like same-day registration and pre-registration for 16- and 17-year-olds can substantially boost youth turnout.

But to truly increase turnout among young people, she argues education in the U.S. has to shift from «bubble sheet civics to practical civics.

«The important information is not memorizing who’s the chief justice of the Supreme Court, she says. «The important information is what is the date by which you must register? What is the information that you must have available when you show up at the ballot box? What should you do if you get up there and they say that you’re not on the list?

Those are the questions advocates hope to help young people answer now that the first absentee ballots are already going out in the mail.