Discovering Young Voters, Part 5 (Everyday Citizen)

Welcome to the fifth and final installment about discovering young voters and their impact on politics both this election and beyond. In this piece I'd like to discuss further how one can build a youth program, some tricks of the trade, and good resources to implement for larger and more monumental program.

As I stated before, I wanted to write this series because too often we bypass the introductory level information assuming everyone knows about these things. Therefore, today I'd like to continue the series for entry level topics to create an understanding of why young voters are important and how they impact elections, what are frequent mistakes about young voters, what are attitudes of young voters, youth policy and talking about issues, and how to begin a youth program.

How to Start a Youth Program

Anyone hoping to increase the participation among young people in government and politics should first know their audience and why they are important, frequent mistakes to avoid, and issues important to them.

From there its all about programing. The number one way to engage young voters is in a way that is non-traditional. No network TV buys, no candidate forums where people are standing at podiums, no partisans showing up at their doors talking about voting and registering.

The best way to get young people is to be different and engaging. Here are some places to begin:

Build a voter file with Facebook
Buy Cable when advertising on TV
Engage the Blogs
Leverage Social Networks
Have Parties at the Polls
GOTV Young people
Trick or Vote
Candidates Gone Wild - hold candidate forums specifically for young people

These resources are only the beginning. For organizations and candidates consider hiring an internet director, or a field staffer that handles young voters. The key is to invest in the solutions, trying to implement a few of these now, and a few as years go on is a safe bet for those who can't afford it, but the outcomes will reflect the lack of a full investment.

The best way to handle these problems is to build partnerships. With registration drives by the NAACP, the League of Women Voters, not to mention HeadCount, and Rock the Vote, you can spread responsibility around in a kind of coordinated effort for the greater good. In the end, it saves money, it builds your electoral pool, it builds collective action, and the results are your desired effect.

In the end, the only way to lose is to ignore. Ignoring young voters is a sure way to guarantee that they won't turn out.