New Voters Project

In 2010, the New Voters Project trained thousands of student volunteers to make more than 190,000 get-out-the-vote reminders in the weeks leading up to the election on nearly 100 campuses in more than 20 states. 

These efforts paid off.  According to election night returns, turnout at several student precincts targeted by the New Voters Project pointed to increases.  While initial analysis released by CIRCLE points to a youth turnout rate similar to that in the 2006 mid-term elections, according to election night returns provided by elections officials on several campuses, turnout at several student precincts where we targeted young voters posted notable increases.

But this year in Wisconsin students face new challenges to voting. The state legislature passed new laws requiring voters to show a Wisconsin photo ID at the polls, which many students don’t have. We worked with student governments all over the state to make sure student IDs could be used as identification, but there is still work to be done.