Want to persuade young people to vote? Show them how it's a tool for change

The youth vote has been steadily rising in recent years. In the 2020 presidential election, at least 50% of eligible voters ages 18 to 29 voted, a new high point, and up from 39% in 2016.

Those of us who work to promote voting among young people were thrilled by this level of youth electoral engagement, and then crushed in 2022 when only 23% voted in the primary election. And yet, they came out again in Chicago’s mayoral runoff election, aiding Brandon Johnson’s victory over Paul Vallas.

The takeaway? Young people vote when they see what’s at stake and believe their vote will make a difference. They sit out elections when the obstacles are greater than the excitement.

I see this reality in action at Columbia College Chicago, where in 2018 I created a peer-to-peer voter engagement program called Columbia Votes. We were part of the national boom in youth voting in 2020: 72% of Columbia College students voted that year, up from 56% in 2016. But we, too, saw a drop-off in 2022, causing us to revisit our strategies and rethink how to engage young people in the 2024 election.

We’ve learned a lot over the past six years about what doesn’t engage young people in voting:

• "Your ancestors died for the right to vote." Generational guilt isn’t a great motivator.
• "Democracy depends on people like you voting." Many young people aren’t convinced that democracy is the best political system.
• "Vote for the least bad candidate." Why is this more compelling than not voting at all?

We’ve also realized many things young people don’t know about voting:

• They often don’t know who has the most power over the issues that matter to them, and whether decisions are made at the national, state or local level.
• Many young people are unaware of options to vote early or vote by mail, which can be more convenient than voting on Election Day.
• Few young people know where to turn for reliable, non-partisan information about candidates and issues.

Demystifying how to become an informed voter

All of this may sound disheartening, but I look at it as an opportunity for engagement. If we can tap into what young people do know and care about, convince them that voting is a tool for change, and demystify the process of being an informed voter, I believe they will show up in November.

That’s exactly what we are doing now at Columbia College Chicago, where I train student workers (I call them "voter registration geniuses") and arrange for them to visit classes throughout the college.

The geniuses start by asking their peers what they care about and then what they are already doing about those things. Students typically talk about signing petitions, going to protests and posting to social media. The geniuses affirm these actions and then point out another thing their peers can do to influence people who have a lot of power: elected officials. And that’s vote.

The geniuses explain in detail which public offices make decisions about the issues their peers said they care about (basic civics). After making these connections, the geniuses share reliable, non-partisan sources of information about candidates, including Ballotpedia and Guides.vote. Then they help their peers check their registration, register to vote and sign up for election reminders.

We won’t have data to support the effectiveness of our revised approach until after the November election, but we are seeing a renewed interest in our classrooms, and we’re hopeful that youth voting rates in 2024 will surge again. The takeaways for anyone interested in promoting voting among young people are these:

• Young people care — a lot — about a number of issues. But they don’t necessarily think these issues can be affected by voting. Help them make that connection.
• Registration is an important first step, but it isn’t enough. Young people need to know about the logistics of voting and how to be informed voters.
• Peer-to-peer voter engagement works best for a generation that trusts influencers more than experts.

The upcoming election will be hugely influenced by young voters. Eight million Gen Z voters are newly eligible to vote this November, joining 33 million of their generational peers. For those of us who believe in empowering the voices of the young people who are most affected by the crises and opportunities of our time, those numbers are exciting — if those eligible voters actually cast their ballots. The rest of us should do what we can to support them.

Sharon Bloyd-Peshkin is a professor of journalism at Columbia College Chicago, where she is the faculty fellow for civic engagement and the founder of Columbia Votes.

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The Democracy Solutions Project is a collaboration among the Chicago Sun-Times, WBEZ and the University of Chicago’s Center for Effective Government, with funding support from the Pulitzer Center. Our goal is to help listeners and readers engage with the democratic functions in their lives and cast an informed ballot in the November 2024 election.