FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
April 26, 2022
PRESS CONTACT:
Carmel Pryor
press@allianceforyouthaction.org
WASHINGTON — The Students Learn Students Vote (SLSV) Coalition and the Alliance for Youth Organizing announced today the launch of Campus Takeover, the nationwide effort to mobilize students to register to vote, create celebratory environments around voting, and foster a culture of civic engagement on campuses during the civic holiday season leading up to the midterm elections this fall.
The four civic holidays – National Voter Registration Day, National Voter Education Week, Vote Early Day, and Election Hero Day – bring together a wide range of organizations and communities in pursuit of a country where everyone participates and votes. Each holiday amplifies a unique aspect of democratic participation – registering to vote, making a plan and preparing to vote, casting a ballot, and celebrating the people who administer elections for communities throughout the US. In partnership with the Civic Holidays, the SLSV Coalition and Alliance unveiled a joint signup form that will streamline participation for hundreds of Civic Holiday partner organizations and millions of individual participants throughout the US. This digital tool uses an intuitive, logic-based model to help participants become part of this annual nationwide movement in just minutes.
Leading up to and during the civic holiday season, Campus Takeover, which was celebrated on more than 600 campuses in 2021, will reach college and university administrators and staff, campuses and their surrounding communities, and polling places that serve campus communities. This year will mark the fifth celebration of Campus Takeover, which has helped thousands of college students participate in elections.
“We want the Civic Holidays experience to celebrate the full journey to becoming a voter,” said Eddy Zerbe, Deputy Director of the SLSV Coalition, the largest nonpartisan network in the country devoted to growing the student vote. “By streamlining the way partners can participate in these mobilizations, we help ensure each individual phase contributes to the same ultimate goal – to help more people celebrate and participate in our democracy.”
“We couldn’t be more excited to help students throughout the country continue the recent extraordinary growth in college student voting rates by taking part in the Civic Holidays,” said Kenny Myers, Director of Network Capacity at Alliance, a nationwide network of local youth-led organizations. “College campuses are the perfect place to infuse community and celebration into the voting process, while helping students become lifelong voters in the process.”
The Students Learn Students Vote Coalition is the national hub and largest nonpartisan network in the United States dedicated to increasing college student voter participation. The Coalition convenes and connects partners, campuses, and students with each other and with resources and programming towards achieving a vision of ensuring that every student has easy and equal access to participate in every election. They use data, relationships, celebration, and easy-to-follow planning structures, to help campus and local leaders register and turnout more student voters every year. The SLSV Coalition is a project of NEO Philanthropy. NEO Philanthropy is strictly nonpartisan, and does not support or oppose any candidate or party.
The Alliance for Youth Organizing grows progressive people power across America by empowering local young people’s organizations to strengthen our democracy, fix our economy, and correct injustices through on-the-ground organizing.