Throughout the summer and fall, Common Cause New York tackles the growing issue of low voter turnout in local elections, especially among millennial voters ages 18-34. Generation Vote, our millennial outreach and mobilization project, engages and informs young voters about local, state and federal elections.

And the best part is we get real results.

Last November we targeted roughly 38,000 occasional millennial voters via text banking. Unlike the average voter in last year’s New York City municipal election, the turn-out rate for young voters who received our texts did not decrease from the 2016 presidential election as is typical for voters regardless of age.

In fact, the turn out rate for those who responded to our texts, almost doubled.

In 2018, we ramped up our incredibly effective mobilizing strategies to engage millennials and get them to the polls. During the 2018 election cycle, we:

  • Sent 630,877 outreach texts to voters in competitive state senate and congressional districts with a simple message- Vote!
  • Engaged more than 300 volunteers, who were trained and provided with in-person volunteer opportunities, such as voter registration, text banking and candidate outreach.
  • Nearly 450+ New Yorkers signed up to receive election-related reminders via text message.
Next Campaign

Let New York Vote