Gen Z and Millennial voting turnout lags that of their elders. These ‘Every Voice, Every Vote’ partners hope to change that
“When you give them the tools to feel empowered to make a difference on those issues, they show up."
By Jared Council, The Lenfest Institute for Journalism
Millennials and Gen Z are the two largest demographic groups in Philadelphia, but they don't turn out to vote as much as their older counterparts. A growing number of nonprofit organizations within the Every Voice, Every Vote coalition are aiming to change that.
Millennials (ages 29-44) and Gen Z (ages 13-28), comprise 27% and 21% of the city's population, respectively, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the National Institutes of Health. Their share has grown considerably in recent decades as many Baby Boomer and Gen X Philadelphians moved to the suburbs.
But older voters who remained still have outsized representation at the polls.
Voters who were at least 44 years old – the youngest Gen-Xers – last year had a turnout rate of 72% in the November 2024 general election, while voters 43 and under – the oldest Millennials – had a turnout rate of just 58%, voting data from Philadelphia Office of the City Commissioners show.
Several Every Voice, Every Vote partners believe civics-related programming and content can help draw more Millennial and Gen Z voters to the polls — especially in non-presidential election years when the outcomes have greater local implications. (This year, for example, judges and district attorneys are on the ballot in Pennsylvania.)
These partners are particularly focused on newly eligible voters, with a few reporting encouraging signs so far.
"The [18-year-old] turnout in the 2024 primary election was double any other Gen Z age in the last year," said Angelique Hinton, founder and president of PA Youth Vote, citing city data that show 18% of registered 18-year-olds voted in the primary, while less than 9% of those aged 19 to 27 turned out. Primary contests typically draw fewer voters than general elections, and overall turnout rate for the 2024 primary was 19.4%
"So, it shows when you engage them (first-time voters) in a way that meets them where they are and you do it in a way that is relevant, it resonates," Hinton said.
Trusted messengers
Managed by The Lenfest Institute for Journalism, Every Voice, Every Vote is a coalition of media organizations and community groups focused on advancing civic information and engagement in Philadelphia.
PA Youth Vote is one of at least eight Every Voice, Every Vote partners trying to increase the civic involvement of young Philadelphians, including on and beyond election days. Their approach is to serve as trusted messengers that provide resources or platforms for talking about and engaging in civics.
Philly Philm Factory, a nonprofit offering arts and media programming, helps young people create news broadcasts about local issues. Victoria's Urban Outreach and Tutoring Service (or VUOTS), hosts youth civic engagement sessions. PA Youth Vote hosts phone banking parties in which calls are only made to 18-year-old prospective voters.
Engaging young Philadelphians through social media is a big part of the strategy to encourage civic engagement. Social media is far and away the top destination for Gen Z audiences to get their news, a recent Morning Consult report says, with nearly 60% of them citing it as a news and information source.
Every Voice, Every Vote has a rotating cohort of social media ambassadors. These creators are paid to spread messages to and solicit feedback from their audiences on civic matters. For the 2024 elections, 11 local creators, primarily with followings of between 5,000 and 50,000 followers, produced civic content that reached nearly 136,000 social media accounts.
Other youth-focused Every Voice, Every Vote partners include The Wealth + Work Futures Lab’s Media Fellowship, Philly BOLT, DayOneNotDayTwo, Need in Deed and North10. These organizations aim to empower youth to use their voices now and instill a spirit of civic awareness and engagement that remains for years to come.
“I think it's important for them to start to understand [civics] now while they're young, so it doesn't feel as overwhelming when they're in their early 20s or in college,” said Eli Bevins, one of the co-founders of Philm Factory.
‘The tide is changing’
Historically, the 18-to-24 voting bloc has tended to have the lowest rate of voting compared to other age groups, both nationally and in Pennsylvania, according to KFF, the health advocacy nonprofit formerly known as the Kaiser Family Foundation.
For instance, in the 2022 midterms, the latest year of available KFF data, 40% of eligible Pennsylvania voters aged 18 to 24 cast ballots, while the turnout rate for all age groups was 60%.
But there are signs that local efforts to increase engagement among new voters might be starting to pay off.
In the November 2024 general election, 68% of all registered 18-year-old Philadelphians voted, outpacing overall turnout, which was 65%. While turnout percentage among 18-year-olds decreased from 74% in 2020, the age group completed more registrations and cast more ballots in 2024 compared to 2020, according to Philadelphia Office of the City Commissioners — a hopeful sign.
“The tide is changing,” said Victoria Best, the founder of VUOTS (pronounced voytz). “I love the fact that there's been a shift and some increase, but we still need to do more work because we need the majority of all folks voting.”
Amplifying and empowering
Philm Factory runs Youth Civic News, a newscast created by students ages 14-21 that includes stories about public safety, transportation and health. Philm Factory collaborates with local media company We Talk Weekly, another Every Voice, Every Vote partner, to air Youth Civic News.
For the Wealth + Work Futures Lab at Drexel University, teaching Gen Z about civics is not limited to politics or government, said executive director Michael O’Bryan. It’s also about helping Gen Z explore – and share about – the issues that affect their transition to adulthood and the workforce.
O’Bryan said his lab has a media fellowship program for people between the ages of 18 and 26, and one of its focus areas deals with how grief and loss can complicate growth and development. He said Gen Z came of age amid the rise of social media, growing wealth disparities, a pandemic, and high homicide rates, and leaders in both the public and private sectors have rarely paid them and their perspectives much attention.
The idea is to provide young adults with a platform to explore and interview their peers about the top issues affecting them.
“No one can give you voice,” O’Bryan said. “But what we can do, we can amplify it."
For Hinton, head of PA Youth Vote, the work is not simply about getting young people to vote but getting them to understand why it’s important to be civic actors.
"The students really care very much about issues, and when you give them the tools to feel empowered to make a difference on those issues, they show up."
*Writer’s Note*
I am employed by The Lenfest Institute of Journalism to cover the people and happenings within Every Voice, Every Vote, the largest civic-information and journalism coalition of its kind in the United States. When not covering Every Voice, Every Vote, I write about civic engagement more broadly in Philadelphia. I worked previously as a reporter for Forbes, The Wall Street Journal and local media.
While I approach this work as an objective journalist, the stories I write about Every Voice, Every Vote will, naturally, have an inherent bias. Nevertheless, my goal is to showcase how such a coalition functions and can be improved, which serves to inform donors, news and community partners, local stakeholders and potential adopters in other markets. I will be as transparent and clear as possible when writing about Every Voice, Every Vote and about civic engagement in Philadelphia.