Young Voter Engagement

A Letter From Voice For Values Founder, Judy Stahl

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For this edition of the Weekly Beat, we are focusing on young Americans and their level of engagement (or lack thereof) in politics in our country. Our senior advisor, Amber Faith, writes our main story this week from a personal perspective. She is a member of Gen Z and a rare and inspiring example of a young American engaged in politics to make a difference.

There is much to be concerned about when it comes to young people and politics today. This crucial segment of the American populace faces challenges that my generation did not. Front and center are the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. This is followed closely by the lack of integrity among elected leaders, on both sides of the aisle, which has resulted in an entrenched lack of faith among young Americans; they do not believe that politics can make a difference that is going to help them. One can hardly blame them.

Education matters. Civics education really matters. Voice for Values will be registering voters starting in July. In January, when we hire our organizers full-time, we will begin active political organizing on the ground, person to person. Young people in rural America will be a significant focus of our Rural Revival Plan campaign. Your financial support will allow us to engage young voters, resulting in a significant positive impact for many years to come.

I leave you with some statistics today from the 50th Edition of the Harvard Youth Poll, Spring 2025. This six minute long video lays out the current statistics, and they are sobering.

Young voters deserve our best. Whatever it takes, let's give it to them.

For the future,

Judy

Main Story: America’s Young Voter Problem

By: Amber Faith, Senior Advisor

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As a senior advisor for Voice for Values, I don’t often speak to our supporters directly. However, it feels appropriate for today’s issue, as we focus on a problem that has puzzled political operatives for decades: Why do young people stay home on election day?

At 27 years old, I fall squarely into the young voter category. I am proud to say that I vote consistently and always complete my ballot, down to the last proposition. I have done so since I turned 18. However, I am not the norm. There is no doubt that American elections suffer from a youth engagement problem. In 2024, young voter participation (voters aged 18-29) declined from 50% in 2020 to 47%. Unfortunately, the reasoning behind this decline often gets lost in a sea of myths and misconceptions about young voters.

So, for this special edition of the Weekly Beat, I felt it was important to break down and dispel these myths, directly from someone who is actually a young adult trying to make it in America.

Many people believe that young people stay home for one very simple reason: young voters today don’t care about politics or the futures of their communities.

This is not just outrageously reductive; it’s plain wrong.

In fact, young voters, on average, are deeply connected to their communities in a variety of ways. Moreover, they are at the forefront of activism on a variety of issues, ranging from gun control to climate change. Data shows that in the 2020 presidential election, young voters reported higher instances of registering friends to vote, attending marches, volunteering with a campaign, and trying to convince their peers to vote.

That is not to say that young voters are a monolith. Some may very well be apathetic, but rather than accepting that as fact, as a society, it behooves us to ask why. The top reason that comes to mind: Young voters do not trust the government and do not think it works for them.

When one looks at the political realities of the last 30 years, it’s easy to understand why.In my lifetime, Congress has consistently set new records for ineffectiveness, regardless of any turnover in membership. Case in point: not since the year I was born, 1997, has the U.S. Congress passed a budget on time.

In our lifetimes, there has been a distinct lack of forethought regarding our futures. For example, everyone my age belongs to a generation responsible for keeping the Social Security Trust Fund solvent for the current beneficiaries, while being fully aware that funds will be depleted well before we are eligible for benefits. Voters my age have always known that at best we will receive just a partial amount benefits compared to current recipients, if any at all. Nonetheless, in nearly 30 years, no elected official has lifted a finger to stop it.

My generation has lived through two economic crashes, which have put a stranglehold on our earning potential just as we’re jumpstarting our careers. And what do our elected officials do? Republicans and Democrats alike bail out big banks, big corporations, and pass tax cuts that provide the bulk of the benefits to billionaires over working people.In summary, it’s easy to become disengaged from a system that feels completely stacked against you.

Now, you may be thinking: then why not vote? Voting can help change things.

Here’s the issue. Change is hard, it takes a long time, and it’s incredibly rare. Just last week, we reported that the incumbency rate for members of Congress is well over 90%. So, even when we vote, our chance to make real change is slim to none.

Yet, in spite of these realities, activism outside of voting is on the rise among young people. Which leads us to our next myth: Today’s young voters are just too lazy to turn out.

Again, this is untrue. When compared to prior generations, young voters actually vote at the same, if not higher rates as previous generations did at the same age. This suggests that more than apathy and laziness is at play. Instead, we should be looking at the structures that exist which impact young voters in a more profound way than older voters.

First, young voters, due to their on-average lower incomes, are far more mobile than older generations. This presents unique barriers that older, more stable adults simply do not face. For example, many states have residency requirements for voting which disproportionately impact young voters, as they are the bulk of new residents in most jurisdictions, either because they moved for a job or they are attending college.

Similarly, the lack of affordable housing across the country makes it so voter ID laws disproportionately impact Gen Z and Millennials more than any other generation. Most states require you to update your registration any time you move. This serves a functional purpose to ensure that voters cast a ballot in the district they live in. They also require your ID to match your voting address. Yet, they do not have systems in place to make it easy to obtain compliant IDs.

It’s pretty hard to vote when you have to choose between paying bills or losing a day of income to sit at the DMV just to exercise your constitutionally guaranteed rights, not to mention the time you would have to take off to stand in line just to cast a ballot.

Some states have found ways around this through online ID renewal and voter registration systems. Vote by mail is also known to boost young voter turnout for similar reasons. Yet, all of this is under threat.

With the SAVE Act passing the House and under consideration by the Senate, vote by mail will become essentially illegal, and states will, by law, have to require individuals to register to vote and update their registrations in person only. Lawmakers are actively trying to make it more difficult for young people to vote.

Again, is it any wonder that young people today feel the government doesn’t work for them?

Our Take:

Solving the young voter problem isn’t going to happen overnight. But, one thing we can do is at least oppose the laws that make it more difficult. The rest is up to us on the ground to continue engagement and education, and continue to work towards real grassroots change.

Take Action: Support Young Voter Empowerment

Our call to action is two-fold:

1. Call your Senators, tell them the SAVE Act is an attack on the rights of young Americans and that you strongly oppose the passage of the SAVE Act.

2. Donate to our rural revival plan. As a voter empowerment program, our organizers will be recruiting young activists to build power in numbers. They will be pushing new faces to run for office, organizing around issues young people care about, and building coalitions from the ground up to do what current elected officials refuse to do.

It is up to us on the ground to continue engagement and education, and continue to work towards real grassroots change. Only together can we empower and turnout young voters.