Wednesday, September 07, 2022

Vote.org announces $10M campaign to register young voters


Voter registration organization Vote.org announced a $10 million registration effort on Tuesday. 
File Photo by Leigh Vogel/UPI | License Photo

Sept. 6 (UPI) -- Voter registration organization Vote.org announced it will launch a $10 million campaign to engage young voters before the November midterm elections.

The "Vote Ready" campaign aims to reach more than 4 million voters between the ages of 18 and 30, with a focus on young voters of color, Politico reported.

Vote.org has registered over 381,000 new voters since the 2020 election and it hopes to reach 1 million by Nov. 8.

"One of the big things is to meet people where they already are," Vote.org CEO Andrea Hailey said, according to Politico. "We want to reach out through the influencers and people that they already are following to make sure they're receiving all the voting information they need."


The new registration drive will target key states such as Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina, Texas, Colorado, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, Florida, Nevada and Pennsylvania. According to Hailey, these states were chosen because they have large communities of color and high populations of young people.

While youth voter turnout was higher in 2020 than previous presidential elections, midterm elections generally have lower voter turnout. However, Hailey said the aim is to encourage people who came out to vote in 2020 to also vote in November.

"If you don't have a voting history, then people don't reach out to you and ask for your vote," she said. "Our thought is that people want to participate, they just need to be included ... and they just need access to the information."


In April, the Harvard Institute of Politics released a poll showing that youth voter turnout was on track to match the record for a midterm election, which was set in 2018.

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