About Youth04

Youth04 is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that seeks to transform the role 18-25 year olds will play in the 2004 election. There are many ways in which we envision young voters getting involved. Young voters could:

• Establish or volunteer for a chapter on their campus
• Participate in the activities of the chapter. For example, young voters could decide to join their fellow students and congregate in local restaurants and cafes that offer discounts to discuss the issues that affect their lives.
• Browse our website and read position papers, sign petitions and vote.

We are a project of the Center for Democracy and Technology in Washington, D.C., The Johns Hopkins University Washington Center for the Study of American Government and the The Washington Center for Internships and Academic Seminars. We launched in September 2003 and currently have 16 interns and close to 40 chapters in over 20 states and the District of Columbia.

In a word, Youth04 aims to create a relationship between young voters and candidates for political office, from President on down. We aim to motivate both sides of the relationship to listen to each other. Youth04 aims to empower the young voters, and to make the system be more responsive to them.

While a large emphasis will be placed on the upcoming Presidential elections (we piloted our efforts in three of the Democratic Presidential Primaries), Youth04 recognizes that some young voters may be more interested in their respective local and state politics. For this reason, Youth04 allows individual chapters to set their own agendas. Moreover, while we have our signature activities we encourage chapter leaders to create their own activities as well as to create innovative methods to implement our signature activities. This decentralized element allows us to play a mainly supporting role as young voters take charge of their own political involvement.

In addition to the upcoming Presidential elections, we also encourage young voters to focus on issue politics. Issues such as the environment, human rights, taxes, and civil liberties are just a few that will remain relevant well after the election. Although the chapters are structured to engage young people and candidates in Election 2004, there are various ways that chapter leaders could also engage young people in issue advocacy efforts, especially online. Certainly after the election these opportunities will exist.

Synthesizing the Net and Traditional Grassroots Organizing

At Youth04 we are synthesizing the best of the political internet and the best of grassroots organizing. For the latter, we will rely heavily on the experiences, ideas and energy of college students nationwide. We have chapters at schools such as West Virginia University, the University of Wisconsin, Indiana University, Weber State University, Johns Hopkins University, Claflin University, Boston University, Lynn University, Tufts University, Georgetown University, Fordham University, Nassau Community College, Syracuse, Western Kentucky University, George Washington University, Pace University, Emporia State University and the University of California at Berkeley. For our current list of chapters, see our Y04 Team page.

In addition to traditional grassroots organizing, we will also use the internet in new and exciting ways to engage the average young voter. For example, we are using our website and our Internet outreach efforts to allow local chapters to promote their individual petitions as well as facilitate communication between the various chapters in their states.

Chapters will be able to aggregate student sentiments using petitions and polls. For example, a petition might call for political candidates to actively seek the vote of young adults by addressing the issues that are especially relevant to young people, such as funding for higher education and improving the job market. Clearly if one petition proves to be successful in one state, it can be replicated elsewhere. At the very least, other chapter leaders could consult the chapter that has issued a successful petition in order to gauge ideas and methods that can be used in their own petitions.

In addition to sponsoring petitions, Youth04 encourages its chapters to assemble students at local restaurants or cafés and engage them on the issues that are important to them. One way to ensure that students actually participate in such activities is by providing an incentive for them to attend. The most obvious form of incentive is a freebie or a discount. For example, a restaurant or cafe could offer a 25% discount for students who mention Youth04 or who take part in the Youth04 discussion. (This idea was piloted by our Election 2002 effort, Maryland Internet Politics Week.) It is important for everyone involved to understand that this is not an event-centered effort. That is, students can visit these cafes in groups of two or three people and engage each other in an informal and non-structured manner. We then want to drive them to the Youth04 website to get involved in online activities of their chapter. Students can even go to these restaurants and cafes by themselves and use a laptop to brows political websites we link to at Youth04.org or sign Youth04 petitions or engage in conversations on Youth04 discussion boards.

Youth04 also encourages its chapters to reach out to the millions of non-college educated youth in America. One way of reaching these potential young voters is by visiting the thousands of Community Technology Centers (CTCs) available across the country – these include public libraries, YMCA's and other CTCs. Youth04 is also visiting Youth Centers and piloted this outreach effort in Baltimore prior to the Maryland Democratic Presidential Primary.

Youth04: More Than a Traditional Voter Mobilization Effort

It is important to note that Youth04 is not a traditional voter registration drive or a traditional get out the vote effort. We are trying to register voters and to turn out the vote, but our emphasis is on creating effective ways for young voters to articulate their beliefs and values and to compel politicians to respond to them. Just as politicians seek the support of the elderly, African American, women, and union members, we want young voters to become players in the political process by having their votes courted.

Youth04 Aims to Connect Out of State College Students who are registered in their Home States

We recognize that on most campuses throughout the country there may be a significant out-of-state student population who are not interested in the local politics of their adopted state. Youth04 provides a forum for such students to communicate with others from their home state and discuss issues regarding their local and state politics. This provides an opportunity for students who are not interested in the politics of their adopted state to nonetheless stay involved in the political process.

Challenging a Myth

It is commonly believed that most young believed are simply not interested in the political process. We take a different angle on the situation. We believe that there is a great deal of passion amongst college educated 18 to 25 year olds.

People often say, "Young people don't vote." But in 2000 44% of 18-25 year olds who were in college or who were college graduates did vote.

So what does it mean to say that young people don't vote if 440 out of every 1,000 college students do vote? Non-college educated youth vote at a much lower percentage, but it's important to emphasize that America's college students are simply not the apathetic blob that everyone says they are. It is true college students are still voting at a lower percentage than those over 25 (which is 58%). But college students are voting in larger numbers than most people think.

Moreover, about 7 out of 10 college students volunteer on a regular basis. They spend a considerable amount of their time on activities such as mentoring young children, caring for the poor, and assisting the elderly.

The challenge now is to find ways to motivate young people to be both civically and politically engaged, and we need to build on the passion and energy that is already there.

Youth04 invites all young people who do not actively take part in the political process to join our movement. By joining our mission, young voters are not required to actively participate in a chapter. Rather, we encourage them to visit our website, read position papers, sign petitions and vote.

A society that does not pay attention to its young people is deaf to its future.