Low voter turnout among 18-to-24-year-olds in the U.S. has been, and continues to be, a civic challenge:

• In every presidential election from 1996 through 2008, under half of all young citizens in this age group were registered to vote, and well under half actually vote.

• In every midterm election from 1994 through 2006, their turnout rates have never been above 17 percent. 

But in three straight national elections, Penn undergraduates have dramatically increased on-campus turnout, tripling it in 2004 (over 2000) and 2006 (over 2002), and achieving over 89.6 percent turnout in 2008. Turnout in 2010 was similar to the record-breaking 2006 turnout.

Penn Leads the Vote (PLTV) is a nonpartisan, student-led network that has made it happen by registering Penn undergraduates by the thousands; mobilizing diverse student organizations to disseminate basic information about where to vote; learning federal and local election law and coaxing City officials to provide polling places accordingly; training students to be poll workers or watchers; hosting myriad get-out-the-vote events before election day and on election day; producing a “don’t vote” video; and more.

Each even-numbered fall semester the Fox co-sponsored Political Science 130 course, Introduction to American Politics, focuses strongly on campaigns, elections, and political participation, and offers several special recitations in which students work with PLTV.

Can PLTV move this civic mountain again in 2012?  Are you a Penn undergraduate who would you like to be a part of it? 

For information about how to get involved in PLTV, please contact Kelly Higgins at:  khigg@sas.upenn.edu. Visit the PLTV web at: www.leadthevote.com 

Eisner, Jane. Taking back the vote getting American youth involved in our democracy. Boston: Beacon P, 2004.