About Us

The New Voters Project is a nonpartisan effort to register young people and get them to the polls on Election Day. Since launching the New Voters Project in late 2003, we have been doing this work for two reasons. First, we believe democracy is strongest when citizens participate and for too long, young people haven't been full participants. Second, we believe the best way to get political leaders to pay attention to young people and their issues is to demonstrate that young people are a viable constituency that can be mobilized using tried and true techniques.

Our project has been endorsed by political leaders of every ideological persuasion, including our advisory board members Frank Fahrenkopf and Walter Mondale, as well as nonpartisan civic leaders, colleges and universities, and local businesses.

We are a 501(c)(3) organization. We do not endorse any candidate or party and we do not take a stand on any legislation. Our job is to get young people to the polls. It is up to candidates to convince them who to vote for.

The New Voters Project is a project of the Student PIRGs (Public Interest Research Groups).

About the Student PIRGs
The Student PIRGs have been pioneers in youth voter registration and mobilization efforts. In 1983, the PIRGs launched the National Student Campaign for Voter Registration, the nation's first major youth mobilization effort since 18 years olds received the franchise in 1972. This initial effort registered nearly one million students to vote throughout the 1980s. In 1994, working with Rock the Vote, Campus Green Vote, ACORN and Green Corps, the PIRGs launched the Youth Vote coalition. The coalition eventually grew to include more than 100 organizations, registered well over a million voters through the participating organizations, and helped to ensure coordination and collaboration within the youth civic engagement community. The Student PIRGs then used the expertise gained through these efforts to launch the New Voters Project, which has registered more than 600,000 young voters and made 650,000 GOTV contacts since our launch in 2003.