Among young voters in Texas, many believe that voting has little real impact. Lack of attention to local races, mismanaged absentee ballots and misinformation about young people’s power in politics have contributed to lagging election participation.
Some organizations are trying to reverse this trend. By conducting informational sessions and promoting electoral resources, they aim to increase voter participation.
Voter turnout in Texas was over 18% lower this election cycle than in 2020. Despite 18 to 24-year-olds making up nearly a third of voters in Texas, many are walking away from ballots thinking their vote does not matter or they choose to not vote at all.
Organizations in Texas, such as TX Votes, Youth Voter Movement and Hook The Vote, are pushing for young adults to exercise their voting rights.
Many are college students who went out of state for school, meaning they can only vote via absentee ballot if they choose to continue voting in Texas.
Data provided by TargetSmart says 14% of 18 to 29-year-olds requested the mail-in option nationally. But with delay issues in the U.S. mail system, another roadblock had been placed in the way of young voices. Additionally, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott removed over 1 million people from voter rolls since signing Senate Bill 1 in 2021 to “crackdown on illegal voting,” including some students who moved out of state for college.
Alyssa Coffey, an NYU student from Texas, says she met the deadlines to send her ballot out but never received it in the mail.
“I feel and felt completely disheartened and unheard, but I am glad to know that I was not alone as the only young person who did not get to vote through absentee ballots,” Coffey said. “I felt extremely let down by Texas especially. A place that I am supposed to call home can’t even respect my human right to vote.”
Getting young adults committed to voting starts early, but many Texas high schools do not emphasize the importance of civic engagement. Registration projects, like the Youth Voter Movement (YVM), focus on reaching young adults by visiting high schools and hosting organizational events.
Julie Dunkle, co-founder of Youth Voter Movement, said that making contact with potential voters will encourage them to use their voice at the polls.
“Youth are knowledgeable about global and local issues and they know what they want for their futures,” Dunkle said. “However, as a voting block, they are unaware of the potential power they have as an age group.”
YVM also addresses the misconception that individual votes hold no weight, especially in historically red states. To best engage people aged 18 to 29, the organization highlights issues that are especially important to them. This involves highlighting local government attempts that may impact skate parks or rent control, providing a more focused picture of what is at stake for young adults.
“We try to present recent, local, pertinent examples of where youth have made a difference with their advocacy and/or voting,” Dunkle said. “We also present statistics on the voting power of the 18 to 29 age block of potential registered voters.”
Another initiative to motivate the youth vote is TX Votes, a nonpartisan civic organization dedicated to registering students at the University of Texas at Austin. This semester, the group registered over 3,000 students.
“During the registration period, we went into classrooms as well as organizations and registered people to vote,” said Sofia Westmoreland, TX Votes events coordinator and intern at the Annette Strauss Institute for Civic Life. “We table to register people to vote, and we also throw events to help actually get students out to the polls and make sure they have the information needed in order to vote.”
TX Votes has successfully managed to register college students to vote, but those who didn’t register for this election can still keep themselves involved in politics and the election process overall.
“Sharing information, telling friends and if people aren't registered under their new address, something that not a lot of people know about is that you can actually submit a limited ballot which will let you vote for statewide races rather than specific district races,” Westmoreland said. “That's something we've been trying to amplify recently, because a lot of students don't vote because they think that if they're not registered in Travis County, they can't do it. They can still cast a limited ballot.”
Whether registered or not, remaining educated about politics and exercising the right to vote is something that Westmoreland, 19, strongly encourages. Those who believe that their vote “doesn’t matter” may not realize just how much a handful of votes can impact a race, she said.
“I believe it was the 2004 election Bush won by under 600 votes in Missouri County,” Westmoreland said. “You know, we've seen historically that only a small number of voters can really determine who wins the election.”
Regardless of the results of national races, however, one of the most critical pieces of voting is being able to contribute to local races.
“We're in Austin. We're a pretty Democratic district, but I don't think people pay enough attention to the local races that are nonpartisan, and the candidates you will probably have never heard of if you just have the ballot box,” Westmoreland said. “But those are truly the candidates that will help change your local life day to day, much more than the president or the senator would.”
Youth voter turnout was a critical focus for the nonpartisan civic engagement agency Hook The Vote, or HTV. Its mission is to increase student civic engagement through voter registration efforts at UT.
“Hook The Vote’s primary mission would definitely be involving UT Austin’s student body through civic engagement and in our democracy,” said Piper Connor, social media officer for HTV. “A big part of that this year was definitely getting people registered to vote.”
To educate students, Hook The Vote organized tabling events on campus, offering voter registration and address changes. HTV collaborated with other UT organizations to host events like VoterPalooza, which educated students about the policies of the presidential candidates.
“We talked about each candidate's policies, and if they were an incumbent, what they've done before and things like that, just trying to get voters educated,” Connor said.
Connor said that one of the main challenges was addressing students' confusion regarding voter registration requirements and their need for more understanding of the process itself.
“A lot of people were unaware that even if they lived in Houston before, they have to re-register and you have to change your address,” Connor said. “Some of the people that I encountered thought they could only vote on actual Election Day. And they were like, ‘Well, I have an exam that day, so I'm not going to be able to go.’”
Social media played a crucial role in HTV’s strategy to attract young voters to the polls.
“We made sure that we posted almost every day of early voting about where the polling locations were, when they were open, what you needed to bring,” Connor said.
Connor expressed hope for the future of youth voter turnout in the country.
“We’re determined to keep educating and making it easier for students to engage with our democracy,” Connor said. “The youth vote is what keeps our democracy strong.”