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According to Abby Kiesa, deputy director of CIRCLE, a major factor in the increase has been the work of organizations that arose after 2014 to try to improve campus voting rates.

“Young people have made it very clear that they are here to stay as an electorate, regardless of who’s on the ballot,” said Kei Kawashima-Ginsberg, CIRCLE’s director.

From Georgia to Pennsylvania to Wisconsin, in races that came down to slim margins, young voters turned out in droves for pro-democracy candidates. And, according to CIRCLE at Tufts University, those candidates prevailed because of it.

"Outreach, contact, investment in these states was higher," said CIRCLE deputy director Abby Kiesa about key battlegrounds. "So it's not surprising that voter turnout is higher in these states."

An analysis of the 2018 midterms by CIRCLE found that young women turned out in greater numbers than young men, and that more of them voted for Democrats in that election.

Kei Kawashima-Ginsberg, the director of CIRCLE, said the youngest members of the 18-to-29 group had been driven to embrace politics in a way their elders had not.

According to new data shared by Tufts University's Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, young people were the only age group in which a strong majority supported Democrats.

Our deputy director Abby Kiesa spoke to Arizona Public Media about the importance of voter registration and how to ensure that all young people know how to access and complete the process.

CIRCLE Director Kei Kawashima-Ginsberg talks about young people's electoral impact in the 2022 midterms.