How can we increase civic participation among young New Yorkers?
The Problem: Low voter turnout and lack of civic participation
Your Mission: You’ve been hired to find out the best way to get young New Yorkers to participate in politics, improving their communities, and voting.
Your Mission: You’ve been hired to find out the best way to get young New Yorkers to participate in politics, improving their communities, and voting.
Civic Participation Project
Task 1 / Issues and Voting Survey
Task 2 / Create a Cartoon or Video to Explain How to Register and Vote or Persuade Young People to Register and Vote
Task 3 / Bibliography
Task 4 / Reflection: Describe and evaluate what you did and reflect on what you learned.
Task 1 / Issues and Voting Survey
Task 2 / Create a Cartoon or Video to Explain How to Register and Vote or Persuade Young People to Register and Vote
Task 3 / Bibliography
Task 4 / Reflection: Describe and evaluate what you did and reflect on what you learned.
Here are some resources:
Task 1: Issues and Voting Survey
Survey three members of your community using this form.
Task 2: Create a Voting Cartoon or Video
To make a cartoon, use: Make Believe Comix or Storyboard That
To make a video, use: We Video or iMovie
If you choose to make a video, first watch these videos and consider what you think works and doesn't work in each video.
NYCVotes PSAs.
Rock the Vote Madonna
Rock the Vote Lil Jon
Obama on Registration
Obama on Voting Excuses
#HamforVote (Lin Manuel Miranda)
If you are going to make a cartoon or video to explain how to register to vote, visit one of the sites below to find out how someone who lives in New York would register. Your cartoon or video should explain the requirements and process clearly so that anyone can figure out what to do if they have never registered before. Be sure to include enough information but not too much!
NYC Board of Elections
NYC Votes
League of Women Voters
Vote411
Ballotpedia
Rock the Vote
If you are going to make a cartoon or video to persuade young people to register and vote, consider how you will persuade them.
If you want to refer to the struggle that people went through to get the right to vote, you should review these resources on voting rights:
http://www.kqed.org/assets/pdf/education/digitalmedia/us-voting-rights-timeline.pdf
https://www.aclu.org/files/VRATimeline.html?redirect=timeline-history-voting-rights-act
http://www.annenbergclassroom.org/Files/Documents/Timelines/VotingRights.pdf
If you want to focus on the issues, you should use the results of the class surveys to see which issues are of greatest concern to New Yorkers.
If you want to focus on one of the reasons why people don't vote and try to change their mind, use these resources:
Youth Voting (This article has great statistics.)
Political Cartoon: We Didn't Vote Because it Wouldn't Make a Difference
Political Cartoon: 2 Good Ways to Get Lawmakers' Attention
Infographic: Who Actually Votes in America?
Young People Dramatically Increase their Turnout to 31%, Shape 2018 Midterm
The 2018 Midterms Saw Big Youth Voter Turnout but There's Still Room for Growth
4 Reasons Young People Don't Vote...And What to Do About It
If you would like to focus on Participatory Budgeting, these resources:
NYC Participatory Budgeting
Participatory Budgeting Project
These are some older articles that might be helpful:
Why Don't Young People Vote
Why College Students Aren't Voting and Why it Matters
How can Universities Encourage Young People to Vote?
Old Enough to Fight, Motivated Enough to Vote?
Why Bronxites Should Vote
Millenials Could Determine the Presidential Election but Will they Vote?
Politicians Court Millenials but Will They Vote?
Young Voters Motivated Again
Increasing Voter Turnout for 2018 and Beyond (Opinion)
Rock the Vote Article
You might find these maps interesting.
Is the U.S. Leaning Red or Blue?: It all depends on your map
Where Americans vote and Where they Don’t
The Geography of Voting and Not Voting
Interactive Map: See NYC’s Voter Turnout Block by Block
Midterm Elections 2018
270 to Win Senate 2018
270 to Win House 2018
An Extremely Detailed Map of the 2016 Election
How America Voted in every election since 1824
Other Sites:
Our Time
Letters to the Next President 2.0
C-SPAN Classroom Deliberations: What is the best way to encourage young voters to vote in elections? (see videos)
KQED Education: What should politicians do to appeal to young voters?
White House Get-Out-the-Vote Resources
Here are some resources:
Task 1: Issues and Voting Survey
Survey three members of your community using this form.
Task 2: Create a Voting Cartoon or Video
To make a cartoon, use: Make Believe Comix or Storyboard That
To make a video, use: We Video or iMovie
If you choose to make a video, first watch these videos and consider what you think works and doesn't work in each video.
NYCVotes PSAs.
Rock the Vote Madonna
Rock the Vote Lil Jon
Obama on Registration
Obama on Voting Excuses
#HamforVote (Lin Manuel Miranda)
If you are going to make a cartoon or video to explain how to register to vote, visit one of the sites below to find out how someone who lives in New York would register. Your cartoon or video should explain the requirements and process clearly so that anyone can figure out what to do if they have never registered before. Be sure to include enough information but not too much!
NYC Board of Elections
NYC Votes
League of Women Voters
Vote411
Ballotpedia
Rock the Vote
If you are going to make a cartoon or video to persuade young people to register and vote, consider how you will persuade them.
If you want to refer to the struggle that people went through to get the right to vote, you should review these resources on voting rights:
http://www.kqed.org/assets/pdf/education/digitalmedia/us-voting-rights-timeline.pdf
https://www.aclu.org/files/VRATimeline.html?redirect=timeline-history-voting-rights-act
http://www.annenbergclassroom.org/Files/Documents/Timelines/VotingRights.pdf
If you want to focus on the issues, you should use the results of the class surveys to see which issues are of greatest concern to New Yorkers.
If you want to focus on one of the reasons why people don't vote and try to change their mind, use these resources:
Youth Voting (This article has great statistics.)
Political Cartoon: We Didn't Vote Because it Wouldn't Make a Difference
Political Cartoon: 2 Good Ways to Get Lawmakers' Attention
Infographic: Who Actually Votes in America?
Young People Dramatically Increase their Turnout to 31%, Shape 2018 Midterm
The 2018 Midterms Saw Big Youth Voter Turnout but There's Still Room for Growth
4 Reasons Young People Don't Vote...And What to Do About It
If you would like to focus on Participatory Budgeting, these resources:
NYC Participatory Budgeting
Participatory Budgeting Project
These are some older articles that might be helpful:
Why Don't Young People Vote
Why College Students Aren't Voting and Why it Matters
How can Universities Encourage Young People to Vote?
Old Enough to Fight, Motivated Enough to Vote?
Why Bronxites Should Vote
Millenials Could Determine the Presidential Election but Will they Vote?
Politicians Court Millenials but Will They Vote?
Young Voters Motivated Again
Increasing Voter Turnout for 2018 and Beyond (Opinion)
Rock the Vote Article
You might find these maps interesting.
Is the U.S. Leaning Red or Blue?: It all depends on your map
Where Americans vote and Where they Don’t
The Geography of Voting and Not Voting
Interactive Map: See NYC’s Voter Turnout Block by Block
Midterm Elections 2018
270 to Win Senate 2018
270 to Win House 2018
An Extremely Detailed Map of the 2016 Election
How America Voted in every election since 1824
Other Sites:
Our Time
Letters to the Next President 2.0
C-SPAN Classroom Deliberations: What is the best way to encourage young voters to vote in elections? (see videos)
KQED Education: What should politicians do to appeal to young voters?
White House Get-Out-the-Vote Resources