1 Million Voter Guides, Oh My!

We love bringing you good news in the midst of so much uncertainty in our country, and boy do we have some good news this week.

The Alliance network *officially* has 1 million voter guides being circulated in communities across the country from now until Election Day! And this year we are partnering with NextGen America and Planned Parenthood Votes to collectively distribute over 2 million guides nationwide!

Voter guides change the way young and first time voters are engaged because organizers are able to have face to face conversations about what’s on the ballot. This is a game changer because our folks are usually the first people to have real talks with young people about the candidates and issues on ballots. We know too well that if our network isn’t out in their communities facilitating these conversations, they just wont happen. This is why our goal is to grow this program each and every year.  

So how does this work? Each organization in our network creates their own local guides and distribution plan. Typically,  guides are mailed to voters, handed out in community spaces, and inserted in campus newspapers. They are also distributed digitally through text, email, and digital ads.

We know that telling young people to just “go vote” or who to vote for isn’t effective.

What is effective are c4 voter guides that show a clear difference between the candidates – these guides ask yes/no questions of candidates so young voters can clearly see where they stand on issues that are the most important to them.

And we have the data to prove these are effective – for example, in a previous test we learned that young Black voters who were mailed voter guides turned out at a rate of nearly 2 percentage points higher than those who did not receive a guide.

How was that for some good news? With 1 million voter guides out and young people across the network making calls, texts, and on the doors, we know our generation is ready to make history this November!