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.

Youth voter suppression in Texas was on full display during the 2020 election cycle.

In the 2020 presidential primary, students at the Texas Southern University-a historically Black College- waited on 6 hour lines to vote. This was caused in-part by the State Legislature's recent effort to eliminate mobile early voting sites on college campuses and close hundreds of poll sites in Black and Brown communities.

As if the removal and closure of polling locations wasn’t enough, an age restriction was set on mail-in voting (only voters above the age of 65 can vote by mail), effectively barring displaced students and young voters from voting by mail in the midst of the 2020 pandemic.

On Tuesday, July 13th young people from across Texas held a day of action and testified at the Texas State Capitol in Austin to protest recent proposals (HB3, SB1, SB7) that would stop practices such as drive-through voting, stop 24 hour voting, and more - which would make it easier for young people and people of color to vote.

In fact, these recent proposals are so egregious that a majority of the Democrats in the Texas State House fled the state to postpone a vote on some of the proposed legislation.

In order to provide a platform for young people in Texas to share their story and discuss the challenges they face when voting, Generation Vote will be embarking on a Youth Voting Rights Listening Tour throughout the United States, with an important stop in Texas. 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 Texas stop of the Youth Voting Rights Listening Tour in partnership with the Texas Freedom Network (Texas Rising), Jolt, MOVE, and the Youth and College Division of the Texas NAACP.

If you're interested in joining us for this event, please RSVP. You will be sent the Zoom link via email.