Five Weeks Away: Voter Registration Among Youth Ages 18-19 Lagging in Many States

• In 21 of 27 states with recently updated data, voter registration for youth ages 18-24 is already higher than in November 2016.
   
• In most states, voter registration among young people ages 18-24 is also higher than in 2018. In 14 of the states for which we have data from September, voter registration for that age group was higher in 2018 than in 2016, AND is higher now than in both years.
   
• In more than half (16 of 27) of the states we looked at with updated data, registration among the youngest eligible voters is still below November 2016 levels.

CIRCLE and Snapchat: Partners for Youth Media Creation and Voter Engagement

In recent election cycles, companies have made increasingly stronger commitments to promoting informed youth voting using their digital media platforms, storefronts, and apps. One particularly strong leader in this field has been Snapchat, and CIRCLE has been pleased to inform the company’s voter engagement efforts and initiatives. Most recently, our Director Kei Kawashima-Ginsberg provided data analysis and feedback for Snap’s white paper: “Don’t Scroll Past Gen-Z: How to Harness this Generation’s Political Impact.”

Some of the data we provided Snap for the report comes from brand new analyses of our 2020 youth pre-election survey. It includes:

• 82% of Gen Z-ers say the COVID-19 pandemic has made them realize how their political leaders’ decisions impact our everyday lives, and 85% believe young people have the power to change things in this country
• Only 21% of Gen Z-ers have ever voted by mail at least once, and though 65% have seen information regarding voting by mail, 35%—millions of youth—haven’t seen any information at all. More than 27% of 18- to 21-year-olds said they wouldn’t know where to find information about mail-in voting.
• Over 60% of 18- to 23-year-olds say they feel more represented when they create media and content about politics or social issues.