New Voters Project

Our Vision

Our democracy works best when we all participate and everyone weighs in on who gets elected. We believe that the full participation of young people in the political process is essential to a truly representative, vibrant democracy. 

The Problem

When young people don’t participate in our democracy, several things happen: Elected officials and those seeking office ignore issues that young potential voters care about. Young people see that they aren’t being represented and decide that participation won’t bring the change they seek. This “cycle of mutual neglect” is self-sustaining—as young people continue to not show up, politicians will continue to ignore their concerns.

The Solution: Revitalize our Civic Communities

We envision an America where young people (18 – 29 year olds) are full participants in our democracy and are fully represented by decision makers.  

To reach this goal, we need to continue our progress on college campuses to turn out the student vote and at the same time work beyond campuses to revitalize our civic communities. The New Voters Project seeks to:

1. Develop and train young community leaders. We aim to renew faith in our political systems by helping the next generation of voters understand how they work and how they can be a part of the process.
2. Work with others to make voting easy and accessible, on our campuses and in our communities. Together we will use proven methods and action-planning tools that help young people participate in the political process. By working collectively with stakeholders on and off campus, we will ensure campuses make effective civic engagement plans to help them reach their goals over the next two years.
3. Engage voters in our communities by making voting fun and empowering – from organizing large, visible events during Welcome Week to driving students to the polls on Election Day.

New Voters Project States

The Student PIRGs’ New Voters Project works on college campuses and in high schools to energize and mobilize young people to vote across the country. Together we can shape the future of our communities, our states, and our country.

40 Years of Helping Students Vote

Since 1984, the nonpartisan Student PIRGs’ New Voters Project has helped millions of students register to vote, understand what is on their ballots, and make a plan to make it to the polls.

Every year, we work with colleges and universities to develop civic actions plans to help our communities participate in democracy, not only during elections, but year-round. Our program trains thousands of students in the citizenship, leadership, and campaigning skills necessary to run voter engagement and mobilization campaigns. 

Resources

 

The Student PIRGs’ New Voters Project is America’s oldest and largest nonpartisan youth voter mobilization program. The Student PIRGs’ New Voters Project, a 501(c)(3) organization with 4945(f) status, has run peer-to-peer young voter mobilization drives to turn out the youth vote on college campuses for more than 40 years. The New Voters Project does not endorse, either explicitly or implicitly, a political candidate or political party for elected office. Our goal is to engage as many students as possible in every election cycle so that our generation is represented in the political process, regardless of ideology or political affiliation.