Following the 2018 midterm elections, state legislatures and local elections officials across the country moved to restrict access to the ballot for young people and people of color, and the 2020 election was no exception. Unfortunately, things are only getting worse.
New York’s youth turnout rate is lagging far behind the rest of the country. The youth share of all votes cast in New York decreased from 16.4% in 2018 to 15% in 2020. In fact, only 6 states had a lower youth share of all votes cast in 2020 than New York, and the rate difference between each state was slim.
New York’s young voters are not less enthusiastic, or less responsible. Instead, they face unique barriers to making their voices heard. For example, it took Stony Brook University students 3 hours to travel to their early voting site in 2019. More recently, in New York’s 22nd congressional district, the Oneida County Board of Elections failed to register 2,418 voters who applied on time through the DMV (most of which were young people), thus preventing them from voting on election day.
Furthermore, students at Bard College had to sue to get a polling site on their campus for the 2020 election after a decade of intimidation and suppression in Dutchess County.
Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic has only further exasperated the systemic cracks in New York’s electoral system. The pandemic disrupted schools across New York, bringing youth voter registration efforts to a standstill. 90,730 young people turned 18 in New York in 2020, and over half a million more eligible 18-29 year olds face extremely limited options for registering and exercising their right to vote.
The list goes on and on, but one thing is clear: youth voter suppression is not limited to red states.
In order to provide a platform for young people in New York to share their story and discuss the challenges young people face when voting, Generation Vote will be embarking on a Youth Voting Rights Listening Tour throughout the United States. Listening tour participants will also have the opportunity to help GenVote build a new vision, strategy and story for a national youth voting rights movement.
Generation Vote is hosting the New York stop of the Youth Voting Rights Listening Tour in partnership with the Andrew Goodman Foundation.
If you're interested in joining us for this event, please RSVP. You will be sent the Zoom link via email.
