Pennsylvania may not have a youth voter apathy problem. Registration is the hurdle, experts say

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Low voter turnout among teens and young adults in Pennsylvania may have less to do with apathy than with registration, a report from the Civics Center suggests. In major elections, registered 18-year-olds turn out at rates comparable to registered voters ages 45 to 79.

The finding challenges assumptions about young voters, said Laura Brill, founder of the Civics Center, a national nonpartisan nonprofit organization that trains high school students to organize voter registration drives.

“They read about low youth turnout. [This data] is helping to debunk this myth,” Brill said. The challenge, she said, is getting young people registered and helping them understand why it is important to become part of the process.

“The goal is to try and really embed this in the culture of high school, so it’ll be part of the students’ own leadership and can see themselves as full actors in democracy,” Brill said.

The barriers to participation

But registration is not the only barrier to participation. Young people can become disillusioned with voting and feel that their individual participation has little effect, said Dani Cosme, scientific director of the Climate Communication Division at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Public Policy Center. She studies the psychological and social factors that motivate behavior.

“It is true that what the majority of Americans want and what young people want and care about is not actually happening,” she said.

One way to overcome that disillusionment is to make civic participation personally relevant by connecting it to the people, communities and issues young people care about, Cosme said.

Young people can also face psychological barriers that compound structural ones. Cosme points to informational barriers that can reduce a person’s sense that they are capable of participating, motivational barriers that affect whether they feel compelled to participate and self-regulatory barriers that can make it harder to follow through.

Those barriers can be especially important during adolescence and emerging adulthood, when people are developing their values and identities, she said.

“We develop our sense of personal values based on the relationships and the communities and the groups that we’re a part of, and the values that they hold,” Cosme said. “These values become internalized and become our heartfelt core values. There’s both this sort of increasing strength and identification.”

Making civic engagement personal

For Sultan Smalley, a social science class at the Community College of Philadelphia became an entry point to civic engagement. After taking the class in 2023, he began volunteering with community organizations, including the Sunrise Movement, and canvassing.

“I think being more involved in my community has sort of transformed me in a way,” Smalley said. “I mentioned in 2020 I wasn’t very active, you know. I was a bit of an Instagram warrior, which wasn’t very productive, and I got a little burnt out. I started to feel a little silly. For me, [getting involved] is kind of therapeutic.”

Throughout organizing, Smalley has also learned different ways of reaching people and building community.

“We played Beyblade at college campuses, and we canvassed people as they were walking by, or as they played with us,” he said. “It’s funny, but it’s also building a real community, real grassroots organizing.”

Jamir Griffin, a South Philly native, known as Lexaprotagonist on social media, takes a similar approach, combining political education with pop culture. Griffin posts political commentary online, collaborates with political organizations in Philadelphia and plans events designed to bring neighbors together.

“When you show people that you’re a young dude who cares and can maintain some type of life and hobbies, people appreciate that,” Griffin said.

Civic engagement beyond the ballot

Philadelphia organizations PA Youth Vote and Vote That Jawn are also finding creative ways to engage young people in civic life.

Maya Izzard, a junior at the Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts, became involved with PA Youth Vote in January after learning about the organization through her family. Although she found it hard to be as involved as she had hoped this year, Izzard found another outlet for civic engagement by starting conversations in her AP classes.

“We are learning from each other and we have conversations because as teenagers, we all care about what’s going on in our world, but we never really have the opportunity to talk about it,” Izzard said. “I feel like in certain classrooms where it’s like teachers don’t want to get into the nitty gritty of it all. But I feel like … especially when you talk to your friends, it’s a very open and free space.”

PA Youth Vote has also held in-person meetings at CAPA, using programs such as civic arts to engage students.

“CAPA is very free. It’s not an argument about anything, we are just kind of sharing our opinions and having a very comfortable [conversation],” Izzard said.

Izzard said art and conversations with her peers have given her another way to think about young people’s role in civic life, including those who are not yet old enough to vote.

“I think it is important for us to really have that voice,” she said. “Even though we’re not exactly there yet, we still get affected by the world. There’s still things happening to me and the youth that I’m going to have a voice [in] at some point, and that I need a voice in now to be able to prevent some things.”

PA Youth Vote ambassadors Vincent Nguyen and Jordan Savage have also worked to help young people take their first steps into civic engagement.

“Civic literacy isn’t something that everyone is required to know,” Nguyen said. “I have as much to learn as someone who isn’t as involved as I am.”

Savage said his work focused on giving high school students a stepping stone into politics. The experience also required him to examine his own understanding of civic engagement.

“I had to really dig deep and understand myself, so I can help everybody else,” Savage said.

Other organizations are giving young people ways to engage outside of traditional political activities. Kayuga Jade deGuzman and Vismita Holavanahalli participated in spoken-word events organized by Vote That Jawn, using poetry to explore issues important to them.

“I was thinking about all the sacrifices that my grandparents made … coming here and being here, and how easy it is to forget that something as simple as voting was something that was really hard,” deGuzman.

For Holavanahalli, poetry became a way to address immigration as a community issue.

“I think writing the poem and being able to perform really showed me that I can make a change, and I can get involved in these ways,” Holavanahalli said. “It doesn’t have to just be through voting.”