CONTACT:
Adam Lioz
Program Director
Progressive Future
(303) 893-0458
Edith Sargon
National Field Director
Choice USA
(202) 719-9445
Kristina Wilfore
Executive Director
Ballot Initiative Strategy Center
(202) 223-2373
Erica Williams
Policy and Advocacy Manager
Campus Progress Action
(202) 741-6293
Download the Youth Voter Guide
Washington, D.C. – Progressive Future co-released today a guide to aid young voters nationwide in ballot-measure voting on Tuesday, November 4. The Ballot Initiative Strategy Center authored the report; the groups Campus Progress Action and Choice USA joined Progressive Future in releasing the guide.
The report summarizes 30 state-level ballot initiatives from across the country and focuses on issues particularly important to youth voters, including criminal justice, the environment, education, reproductive freedom, jobs and taxes, health care, and equality.
"Some of the most important and controversial laws in this country aren't made by politicians, but instead by voters. Ballot measures this year present voters an opportunity to take things into their own hands," said Kristina Wilfore, Executive Director of the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center.
“It’s essential that young voters are informed on issues lower on the ballot than the presidential vote,” added Adam Lioz, Program Director for Progressive Future. “This fall, young voters will help decide initiatives that seek, for example, to ban or repeal same-sex marriages, restrict a woman’s right to choose, or provide students more money for higher education.”
Outlining referenda in 14 states, the guide provides a progressive perspective on each while also listing web-based resources on both sides of the ballot measures. The groups will distribute the report to their members via e-mail and on the ground at college campuses across the country.
“Ballot measures have become the battlegrounds on which fights for youth and women’s rights are waged,” said Kierra Johnson, Executive Director of Choice USA. “It is our responsibility to empower young leaders to engage at the state level and mobilize their peers to take action around critical ballot initiatives that directly impact their lives.”
The groups point out that since young voters are typically less experienced with voting, they can benefit from additional resources regarding decisions that will likely impact their lives for a long period of time.
“With young people registered to vote in unprecedented numbers on Election Day, the youth voice will ring louder than ever this year,” concluded Lioz. “Our goal is to empower that voice through information.”
Ballot Initiative Strategy Center is the nerve center for progressive ballot initiative campaigns across the country. As voters across the country prepare to go to the polls, the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center’s website, www.ballot.org, is the most comprehensive, up to date and user friendly place for information on ballot initiative campaigns.
Campus Progress Action works to help young people -- advocates, activists, journalists, artists, and others -- make their voices heard on issues that matter. It engages in advocacy, coalition, and media work on key policy issues of importance to young people; advance grassroots issue campaigns on campuses and in communities; and train young people in media, policy, writing, grassroots organizing, and other critical
skills. Since its launch in 2005, Campus Progress Action has worked to build a strong, united progressive movement that can bring long-term positive change.
Choice USA mobilizes and provides ongoing support to the diverse, upcoming generation of leaders who promote and protect reproductive choice both now and in the future. For more information refer to www.choiceusa.org.
Progressive Future promotes progressive values through grassroots action. Its mission is to build and mobilize grassroots support, both online and in neighborhoods throughout America, for progressive change. This fall, Progressive Future is running several large-scale field programs to engage citizens in the upcoming election.
