The League of Young Voters Education Fund

Tuesday was a good day for the League. After months of effort, we succeeded in getting out the youth vote on a massive scale! The numbers are still rolling in, but we wanted to give you a sneak peek of what we pulled off this year. No time to rest – #2012StartsNow!

• In Maine, we educated 16,000 voters on Ranked Choice Voting prior to the first mayoral election in 88 years.
• In Wisconsin, our Voter ID campaign enabled 2,000 young people (and counting) to get IDs to vote in 2012.
• In Texas, we helped keep Voter ID out of the election and debuted our Life-Long Voters campaign to train 25 young Houston leaders on grassroots organizing.
• In Ohio, 1,900 young people pledged to vote in 2011.

By Judith Browne Dianis (co-director of Advancement Project) and Jayme Montgomery (Wisconsin director of the League of Young Voters). Originally published in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.

A year from now, the people of Wisconsin will be going to the polls to exercise one of the most cherished rights of our democracy: the right to vote. It is the fundamental pillar of our democracy that in the voting booth we are all equal – black or white, young or old, rich or poor. When we cast our ballot, we all raise an equal voice to determine the shape of our government.

Wisconsin legislators would deny that right. Strict new voter identification laws were proposed in 34 states, including our own. Wisconsin’s new voter identification restrictions, which passed the Legislature this year, are now the strictest in the country.

Read more…