Project Vote's Michael Slater was recently quoted in Tampa publication, Creative Loafing on the state of youth voting in the United States.

   "When they talk about youth vote, it is code for college kids," Project Vote's Slater said. "The real challenge is: Will we see anyone go beyond the college voters to the other half of young voters? How do we find issues that appeal to them beyond those on the campus?"

   That demographic includes more young voters of color and in lower economic ranges, groups that are already horribly underrepresented at the polls.

   "The other half aren't touched by the campaigns as effectively," Slater said. "When you leave campuses, you lose some of the intensity that drives participation."

Project Vote recently released a research memo on the demographic make-up of youth voters in the U.S.

The article mentions Project Vote's goal to register 1.2 million low income, minority, and young citizens in time for the 2008 general election in November, "[h]alf of those will be young voters. In Florida, where ACORN does Project Vote's work, that will equate to 60,000-100,000 possible new voters."

"Every sign indicates this is going to be a big, big election," Slater said. "I think we may have a real opportunity to expand the electorate to include people who haven't participated or who haven't been engaged in the process."

Project Vote is currently more than halfway towards its goal with 615,000 voters registered as of June 1, 2008.

By Nathan Henderson-James

A new Research Memo published today by Project Vote shows that while youth voter participation has been setting records this election cycle, participation by young people still lags behind other age groups. Further the data show that participation has largely been confined to young people with at least some college experience.In Project Vote's view, this data suggests that continued focus on college-attending youth without reaching out to non-college youth threatens to leave at least half of this key constituency out of the most important election in a generation.

Cross-posted at Project Vote's blog, Voting Matters

Weekly Voting Rights News Update

By Erin Ferns

The debates surrounding the issue of expanding or restricting access to the right to vote are in high gear this legislative session at both state and Congressional levels. Bills filed range from proposals to lower the voting age to voter ID requirements. Project Vote's Election Legislation monitoring project has identified a surge of contentious election bills this year, but whether this is simply the result of the standard impact of a presidential election year or the byproduct of increasingly fractious partisan politics, the future of the foundational right of American democracy is being set right now.

This week Project Vote examines the progress of four hot-button voting rights issues through legislatures and the media. Youth voting in primary elections, voter identification (and its harbinger; accusations of voter fraud), felon disenfranchisement, and vote caging were all in play.

Advocates concerned with any of these issues as well as the entire spectrum of voting rights and election administration legislation can follow the progress of these types of bills through 21 state legislatures at Project Vote's ElectionLegislation.org tool (registration required).

Cross-posted at Project Vote's blog, Voting Matters

With a presidential election year comes the inevitable buzz about how how young people will participate in the democratic process.  This year, however, the buzz is about younger voters starting to fulfill the promise of the 26th Amendment, rather than a drumbeat about their apathy. Perhaps this should come as no surprise. A recent Pew Research Center study showed 18-29 year olds are more invested in politics with 85% showing interested in keeping up with national affairs, compared to 71% in 1999. An interest in local politics leaped from 49% in 1999 to 77% today. This increase in interest and investment seems to be playing itself out over the primary season.

Weekly Voting Rights News Update

By Erin Ferns

An increase in turnout among historically underrepresented voters Tuesday brings hope for outstanding voter participation that represents all Americans in November. Project Vote's Super Tuesday exit poll analysis found young and minority voters made a strong presence at polls in key states across the country, including record-setting turnout among Latinos in California. While voter participation appears to be on the rise in this critical presidential election year, polling place problems persist as some voters - and their precincts' poll workers - were unaware of state and federal voting procedures, creating the risk of intimidation and disenfranchisement. In order to maintain fair and open access to voting for all Americans, it important to prepare voters and facilitate effective poll worker training before November.

Weekly Voting Rights News Update

By Erin Ferns

Two historically disenfranchised groups - former felons and young people - made headlines this week for assiduously struggling to restore their voting rights, a measure that both groups argue is necessary in order for them to have a voice in the nation's future come November 4.

Weekly Voting Rights News Update

By Erin Ferns

Tuesday, a federal court blocked Florida's "no match, no vote" law after finding it violated voting rights, just six weeks before the state's presidential primary. The so-called "common-sense anti-fraud measure" required election officials to match voter registration application information - including names, birthdays, driver's license and Social Security numbers -  against federal databases before registering a person to vote. Although the error-prone procedure put hundreds of thousands of Floridian registrants at risk of disenfranchisement each year and a federal court struck down a similar Washington law for the very same reason, Secretary of State Kurt Browning said he would "immediately appeal," according to the Associated Press.

In 2007, Project Vote tracked 485 election bills in 24 states, some of them appearing to promise a consequential impact on voting rights. Bills ranged from good--Election Day Registration and felon voting rights restoration, to bad--voter ID, and everything in between. Few of the bills, however, made it beyond one chamber, making the 2007 legislative year an uneventful one. But it was a preview of what we can expect from the 2008 legislative sessions: an abundance of election bills expanding (or restricting) voter access in a presidential election year.