For Immediate Release: March 4th 2008

Contact:
Ohio State University - Kathleen Cogan 281 615 2495 (c)
Miami University - Erik Smith 740 297 0088 (c)
University of Cincinnati - Sheena Rice 406 690 9777 (c)
Program Director - Sujatha Jahagirdar 323 309 6120 (c)

Student Volunteers Urge Young Voters to the Polls

Using Text Messaging, Sandwich Boards and ‘Vote’ Stickers, Ohio Campus Leaders Urge their Peers to Vote in Today’s Primary

Campus leaders with Ohio PIRG's New Voters Project pounded the pavement in last minute push for youth voter turnout today.  Using text messaging, walking sandwich boards, and ‘Vote’ stickers, student leaders pulled out all the stops to urge their peers to the polls.

In just two hours, student leaders at a Miami University ‘Get out the Vote’ table convinced more than 80 students on their way to class to pull out their cell phones and text five of their friends an Election Day reminder to vote.

Braving the rain at Ohio State University, campus volunteers urged their peers to sign ‘walking sandwich boards’ that urged young voters to the polls.

At the University of Cincinnati, student leaders handed out ‘Vote’ stickers as dozens signed a campus ‘Get out the Vote’ banner.

The push is the latest for the Student PIRGs’ New Voters Project which has worked extensively to boost youth turnout rates in primary states across the country.  Pairing old fashioned pavement-pounding with technology to link up with the increasingly wired world of the young voter, the project has employed a myriad of tactics to mobilize the youth vote.  From ‘bring your own phone’ phone banks to classroom ‘text out the vote’ announcements to tables set up on campus quads, student leaders recruited and trained by the project have engaged young voters in more than 20 states this primary season.

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Ohio PIRG is a student organization that works to solve public interest problems related to the environment, consumer protection, and government reform http://www.ohiopirgstudents.org/.  Since 2004, we have registered more than 8,000 young Ohioans to vote.  An analysis of turnout figures in 14 student-dominated Ohio precincts targeted by Ohio PIRG in 2006 found that the overall number of votes cast in those precincts increased by about 50 percent over 2002.

The Student PIRGs’ New Voters Project is the nation’s largest youth voter mobilization program.  Since 2004, we have registered more than 600,000 young people and made more than 650,000 peer to peer voter turnout contacts to get young people to the polls on Election Day. Due in large part to our efforts, the youth vote increased by 4.3 million votes, or 9% in 2004 and an analysis of our work in 2006 found that in the student dense precincts in which we worked with our allies, youth voter turnout increased on average by 157%.