From bar lines to pop culture cameos: Clues from youth voter engagement in Pennsylvania
From bar lines to pop culture cameos: Clues from youth voter engagement in Pennsylvania
There was high youth voter energy in the Commonwealth's 2023 state Supreme Court race. A conversation with campus organizers offers insight about how to motivate young people in 2024.
A refresher. Americans ages 18-29 have turned out in relatively high numbers the past three major election cycles. In 2018, anti-Trump anger and a lack of federal action on issues like gun safety, coupled with activism from groups like March For Our Lives after the tragic school shooting at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, propelled a swath of new voters to take part in the midterm elections. In 2020, a cocktail of the Covid-19 pandemic, a massive movement for racial justice, and a chance to vote former President Donald Trump out of office (paired with the fact that voting is a habit and so many first time voters cast ballots in 2018) led young people to vote at near record levels. And in 2022, the fall of Roe v. Wade, along with economic concerns, (both of which matter deeply for this bloc), once again fired young people up, leading to a youth voter turnout rate 10 points higher than that of 2014.
And yet — there’s plenty of skepticism about the role young voters will play in 2024 while major crises like the Israel-Hamas war, concern over the economy (and what some young people see as a failed promise from President Joe Biden on student debt cancellation), a generational lack of trust in our country’s traditional institutions, and voter apathy at the idea of a potential Biden Trump rematch hang in the balance. Weighing all this and more, it’s worth wondering if today’s generation of young voters will keep up the momentum next year.
Some clues 🔎
I’ve been chatting with organizers who worked to turn out young voters in state and local races in 2023. Their anecdotes offer clues into how young Americans are currently feeling and give insight about how to motivate young people in 2024.
Most recently, I held a Zoom with seven campus organizers from Pennsylvania who were focused on the Commonwealth’s 2023 Supreme Court election (in which Democrat Daniel McCaffery ultimately defeated Republican Carolyn Carluccio), to learn more about what worked for them and what didn’t. Recruited and trained by an effort called Project 26 PA, this handful of organizers and student fellows engaged young voters at Penn State, University of Pittsburgh, University of Pennsylvania, and Temple University. They used a variety of voter engagement tactics, including what they called “bar line” voter registration, which is exactly what it sounds like (they went to bars near campuses at high traffic times and tried to register people waiting in line 🍻) and Barbie-themed stickers and posters, which seemed to be a theme across political organizing this fall. Perhaps a product of their efforts, the race saw high youth voter turnout. According to The Keystone Newsroom, youth voter turnout on college campuses in the 2023 state Supreme Court election, “increased by 110% when compared to the last time there was an open supreme court seat in 2021.”
Here’s some of what the Project 26 PA organizers had to say:
Favorite voter engagement technique?
Teresa, Penn State, 21: "Bar line voter registration”
Geneva, University of Pittsburgh, 27: “Door knocking”
Dani, Penn, 28: “Relational, text banking”
Olivia, Penn, 19: “QR codes, which were quick to scan”
What resonated most with students?
Geneva: “We were nonpartisan, so we were not advocating for a specific candidate over another, but students had follow up questions like, ‘What impact does this have on abortion rights?’ Or, ‘What impact does this have on the environment?’ And I think we were able to, while staying non partisan, have abortion be a front and center issue that really resonated and that was included in a lot of our messaging, in the nonpartisan voter guides, and implicitly in the Barbie-themed stickers we had across campus.”
Teresa: “Youth voters are honestly just begging to be taken seriously. Part of the fun of the Barbie and Taylor Swift messaging is that the things that we consider to be silly and often overlook are often some of the biggest draws in having people participate. So if people are seeing that we’re taking their demographic seriously, we’re trying to get them specifically involved, we’re here for a little bit of fun, but we’re also going to have that information at the same time, that was a really big draw.”
Lack of information one of the biggest barriers
Almost all the organizers agreed that students on their respective campuses were “afraid to mess up” the voting process —something I’ve heard repeatedly when talking to first time voters and nonvoters. It’s crucial to remember that voting procedures aren’t common sense and registration processes are often quite complicated. And policies for out of state students differ state by state. Beyond voter registration rules and regulations, the organizers described a lack of awareness about the role and purview of the state Supreme Court. They said it was mission critical to deliver the information without being condescending.
Teresa: “People just didn't know the answers to questions like: Can they vote in their hometown vs. here, or do you have to cancel out registration?… People didn’t know if they were allowed to vote on campus. People didn’t know if they were out of state if they could vote here… taking the time to answer their questions and to not treat them like they’re behind because they don’t already know the answers really pulled in a lot of people.”
Asia, 25, Temple: “For some students, it would be like, ‘Okay, I can impact the next few years, and I don't know who's on the ballot, or who are my options, and I need more information… It kind of made them nervous to cast their vote. But we had our one-pagers, and we were able to give them information to start, to show them where they could get more information… It made them feel more confident.”
Geneva: “So many people didn't even know what the Supreme Court did. It was really helpful to let them know what the Supreme Court had ruled on previously, especially in the past two years, with so many electoral districting or voting rights [decisions] that they had weighed in on and students were like, ‘Oh my gosh, it's actually really important, and this is a really important race.’”
Eva, Penn State, 27: “We see so many people and young people not voting because of these voter education roadblocks and it being an intimidating process for first time voters. It’s not intuitive and it’s not easy. You can register and it might not process, even though you do everything right on the form and online. We hear this rhetoric, but I think one of the biggest problems is that we hear that, but then we don’t see the resources put forward to actually organize and meaningfully get young people the resources to vote confidently.
Biggest misconception about young voters?
Olivia: “That they don't care to understand or that they just don't care in general. That is just not true. I’ve seen logistical barriers… One thing I was observing was there are these long lines (like multi-hour waits) for some of the polling locations at Penn's campus. I remember I ran into my friend who was coming out of the line, and she said that she had waited around two hours to vote. And then a student who stood in a polling line for two hours but had a non negotiable commitment that they had to leave to attend, is likened to a student who never left their dorm.”
Teresa: “We’re usually caricatured as lazier, or people will feel that social media activism or other tactics that are more commonly employed by youth voters are not as legitimate or not as impactful because they aren’t just using the ballot box. But I found that in every conversation I’d have, even if it was with someone I was cautious to approach because I just didn’t know how productive the conversation would be… they were some of the people that had the most questions. Everybody wanted to get involved. The people who are coming to political sentience now, we're the people that were raised in just an onslaught of unprecedented times. And because of that, people are more more eager than ever to make those changes, to have their voices heard, because our political norms are so close to being lost.”
Your biggest piece of wisdom for organizers looking to turn out student voters in 2024?
Asia: “Appealing to students in a way that isn’t cringe. I had a leg up when students thought I was another student because I was talking to them in such a casual way… Rather than being told what’s important, talking about what’s relevant. Feeding off each other.”
Diksha, 18, University of Pittsburgh: “In conversations, jumping in with a little compliment, bringing something you might have in common.”
Olivia: “Students loved if you could find a personal connection with them instead of getting them hit with an onslaught of questions.”
Eva: “Organizing young people is not a science.”