How Can We Get Young Voters to #VoteLocal

The Knight Foundation recently released a report titled “Why Millennials Don’t Vote for Mayor – Barriers and Motivators for Local Voting,” which — you guessed it — looks into why young people are not voting in local elections. In addition to the release of the report, the Foundation held a live Twitter chat with the hashtag “#votelocal” so participants could contribute their thoughts on why millennials do not vote locally, and offer suggestions for how to combat this trend.

The report and Twitter chat reveal several useful findings about millennials who registered and voted in the 2012 presidential election, but sat out subsequent local races. Only 21% of New York City’s millennials who voted in 2012 cast a ballot in 2013.

Many millennials cite lack of information about local elections, in particular a lack of nonpartisan information, as a central barrier that prevents them from voting in these contests.

But there are simple solutions to these perceived barriers, especially for New Yorkers. The CFB publishes the city’s official Voter Guide and distributes it in print, video and online before each citywide election. The printed Guide is mailed to every New York household with a registered voter before the primary and general elections. It includes profiles from candidates running for local office and information about voting. For federal and state elections, the CFB publishes a Guide that includes basic information about the candidates on the ballot, including their website and social media links.

An online voter guide, similar to what the CFB produces or the Vote411 site from the League of Women Voters, is relatively easy to replicate in other cities. Online guides can be produced at a lower cost than print guides, and can reach audiences beyond the households receiving the print packets. These guides can provide voters with the nonpartisan information they want and need come election time. Furthermore, producing the guide in electronic formats falls in line with one of the key recommendations in the Knight Foundation’s report: making information accessible on mobile devices.

But making the information more accessible does not necessarily mean it will reach younger voters. A number of commenters stressed that more should be done to target the media outlets where millennials consume their news.

So, beyond simply creating the nonpartisan resources, civic groups and government agencies must learn how to expose younger voters to this information.

Voter guides, despite being the original listicles, have not yet carved out a place in Buzzfeed, Twitter and other mediums most commonly used by millennials. While 140 characters isn’t enough room to provide voters with detailed information to be fully informed about the candidates on the ballot, simply tweeting a link to an online voter guide isn’t enough to generate widespread interest. The challenge is striking a balance between the two to help connect millennial voters to the voting information they want.

In the days leading up to New York City’s last citywide elections, the CFB’s online Voter Guide tallied more than 84,000 unique pageviews, an indication there is demand for this information. To direct more voters to the Guides, the CFB advertises on social media, sends emails to registered voters, sends direct mail and conducts phone banks as part of our get-out-the-vote campaign.

Despite these efforts, as noted above, turnout remained low in 2013 even among millennials who had voted in the Presidential election the prior year. Clearly more can and should be done to target millennials and combat voter apathy toward local elections.