A New Generation of Young Voters Emerges

The 2020 presidential election saw an 11% increase in youth voting from the 2016 election (from 39% to 50%), but young people still vote at lower rates than older generations. Use the activities in this mini-lesson to explore why youth political participation matters, trends around youth voting, and ways in which young people can engage with elections. 

What follows are teacher-facing instructions for the activities. Find student-facing instructions in the Google Slides for this mini-lesson.

Before teaching this mini-lesson, please review the following information to help guide your preparation process. 

Activity 1 What Perspectives Do Young People Bring to Politics? (10 minutes)

Ask your students to respond to one or both the following prompts in their journals:

• What are some issues in your community or country that you, or other young people, care about? 
• In your opinion, are there differences between the issues young people care about and the issues people in older generations care about? If so, what are those differences, and why do they exist?

Once students have finished writing, invite them to share aspects of their responses in small groups. Then discuss the following question as a class:

Do you think it matters whether young people vote or participate in politics in other ways? Why or why not?

Activity 2 What Are the Trends in Youth Voting? (20 minutes)

Project the CIRCLE page Dispelling Myths about Youth Voting. Look at the first two charts under the heading “Myth: Youth Voting Has Been Declining for Decades,” which show youth voting rates in midterm and presidential elections. Ask your students:

• How has youth voting changed over time? 
• What questions, if any, does this information raise for you?
• What ideas do you have for why youth voting increased in the 2018 and 2020 elections?

In 2018, CIRCLE examined why some young people registered but did not end up voting. Share the following list of reasons, from the resource Why Youth Don’t Vote: Differences by Race and Education, with your students:

• Didn't like the candidates/issues
• Too busy/had a conflict on Election Day
• Was out of town
• Problems with voter ID
• Problems with voter registration
• No transportation to polling place
• Line at polling place was too long
• Inconvenient hours/location of polling place

Then, ask your students:

• Do you know anyone who has experienced one or more of these barriers? What happened and how did they respond?
• What other barriers would you include on this list?
• What recommendations might you provide to remedy these barriers?
• The most common reason young people cited in this survey for not voting was that they didn’t like the candidates or didn’t identify with the issues being debated. What more could candidates do to inspire young people?
• Do you think people should vote even when the candidates do not inspire them? Why or why not?

Activity 3 What Are Ways Young People Can Get Involved in Elections? (15 minutes)

There are many ways young people can get involved in elections besides voting. Ask your students to read through the following suggestions from the report CIRCLE Growing Voters: Building Institutions and Community Ecosystems for Equitable Election Participation:

Support Your Friends and Family 

• Encourage friends and family to participate in the election and help them make a plan to do so 
• Help them find reliable information about the voting process, the candidates, and the issues 
• Organize or support conversations at school about elections and voting 

Uplift Stories & Issues You Care About 

• Share your views, concerns, and experiences 
• Connect with a local media outlet and find or suggest opportunities to contribute to their election coverage 
• Create and share media online about the people and issues in your community 

Be Part of the Process 

• Volunteer on a local, state, or national political campaign 
• Work with a local organization that is registering others to vote 
• Find out if you can work at the polls on Election Day—many states allow 16- and 17-year-olds to do it! ¹

Then, ask your students to use the Think, Pair, Share strategy to reflect on the following questions:

• What difference do you think these suggestions might make?
• Which of these ideas, if any, could you see yourself doing and why? If you can’t see yourself doing any of these ideas, why not?

• 1Abby Kiesa, Ruby Belle Booth, Noorya Hayat, Kei Kawashima-Ginsberg, and Alberto Medina, “CIRCLE Growing Voters: Building Institutions and Community Ecosystems for Equitable Election Participation” (2022), p. 15.