Youth voting: an election panel discussion

As the November 2024 election grows closer, candidates are attempting to secure a growing and crucial demographic: the youth vote. Specifically, they’re working to rangle the 8 million Gen-Zers that are aging into the electorate in 2024. In total, almost 41 million Gen-Z voters ages 18-27 will be able to vote in this upcoming election.

Election enthusiasm appears to be growing. In the first 48 hours after President Joe Biden bowed out of his bid for reelection and Vice President Kamala Harris announced she was running in his place, more than 38,000 people registered to vote, according to Vote.org. After 5 days that number totaled over 100,000, with 85% of those new voters under the age of 35. Harris’s donation levels also soared, with her campaign raising $310 million in July alone.

In Colorado, voter registration has also surged in the past month. A total of just over 26,000 people across Colorado’s 64 counties registered as new voters in July; an unusually high total for the month of July, when new voter registrations in Colorado typically slow down following the June primaries.

So as younger demographics take the reins, and more importantly compose more of the voter populous, what are the issues that define the generation?

KGNU’s Greta Kerkhoff, spoke with New Era Colorado- Boulder Regional Lead Organizer, Karl Lapham and CU Boulder PHD candidate Samantha Register about the youth vote, what matters to them, voting patterns, and how candidates are attempting to capture them.