For Immediate Release
With Election Day here, the Student PIRGs’ New Voters Project will organize local students on campuses across the country to make a last push to drive young voters to the polls using proven on the-ground and on-line strategies.
In a push to harness mobile technology, leaders will ask students to become ‘text out the vote’ captains and send on-the-spot messages urging their friends to vote. Research published in 2007 by researchers at Student PIRGs’ PIRG New Voters Project, Princeton University and the University of Notre Dame found that text message reminders can increase turnout among young voters by four percentage points.
Student leaders will also storm dorms, organize canvasses of student neighborhoods and group phonebanks to contact tens of thousands of students up until the last possible hour to remind them to cast a ballot.
At Indiana University in Bloomington, students are holding a “Party at the Polls.” Over a dozen Poll Champs will join forces with the Step Team at the polls to make sure that students are having a great Election Day experience. They will have red and blue face paint to write “I Voted,” on students faces while they wait in line. The Poll Champs will wear hats that say “ask me for help!” so they can provide services to those who are having trouble getting their vote counted and need to be connected to the Election Day lawyer hotline.
At North Carolina State University in Raleigh, students will “Lei Down The Vote” by wearing Hawaiian shirts and handing out Leis and taking pictures of students in front of a giant postcard that says “Wish you were here to vote with me.” Students will then text the picture to their friends in order to spread the word that Election Day is here. In a few hours student volunteers will generate thousands of text messages.
At the University of Colorado in Denver, almost a dozen volunteers will hold an “Election Day Party” on the stage in the center of campus. Music, party favors, and a “Why I am Voting” Photo booth will educate thousands of students that Election Day is happening.
At the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque more than 20 student leaders will hold a “Phonebank Your Mustache Off” to contact registered voters reminding them to get out to the polls. Volunteers will wear “I Voted” mustaches while they make almost 1,000 personal reminder contacts.
The Student PIRGs are running student voter mobilization efforts on almost 100 campuses in 17 states this fall. Campuses that will see a last push to mobilize student voters to the polls include:
University of California San Diego (San Diego, CA)
University of California Santa Barbara (Santa Barbara, CA)
University of California Riverside (Riverside, CA)
University of Colorado (Boulder, CO)
University of Colorado (Denver, CO)
Colorado State University (Fort Collins, CO)
University of Northern Colorado (Greeley, CO)
Florida State University (Tallahassee, FL)
Temple University (Philadelphia, PA)
Ohio State University (Columbus, OH)
Oberlin College (Oberlin, OH)
University of Massachusetts Amherst (Amherst, MA)
North Carolina State University (Raleigh, NC)
North Carolina Central University (Durham, NC)
University of Washington (Seattle, WA)
University of Wisconsin Madison (Madison, WI)
University of Wisconsin Milwaukee (Milwaukee, WI)
###
The Student PIRGs’ New Voters Project is one of the largest on the ground, non-partisan young voter mobilization campaigns in the country. Over the past 25 years, we have helped to register more than 1.7 million young people and make millions of personal get out the vote reminders. In 2012, the campaign will target 75 campuses in 17 states with intensive youth vote campaigns that will leverage proven on the ground and online peer-to-peer techniques to turn out young voters.