Public participation is a key component of a healthy democracy, which is why the Student PIRGs’ New Voters Project worked to engage and turn out voters in 2008.
The
New Voters Project used tried and true pavement pounding (we deployed
80 organizers to 100 campuses in 17 states) and new technology (we sent
a quarter million text messages to young voters to remind them to vote)
to register and turn new voters out to the polls on Nov. 4, paving the
way for a lifelong commitment to voting.
Through the New
Voters project, we recruited 500 poll workers to help out at
overburdened polling places and we raised the alarm when we discovered
that 17 states lacked federally mandated protections against voter roll
purges.
On Nov. 4, more people voted for president than ever
before in our nation’s history, and the Center for Information and
Research on Civic Learning and Engagement estimates that 2.2 million
more young people voted in 2008 than in the last presidential election
in 2004.
If you helped out with our election work, thanks and
congratulations. Boosting voter turnout, especially among first-time
voters, is an important step to creating a strong democracy in 2009 and
for years to come.
