In the News

In Massachusetts, the turnout among registered voters between 18 to 24 had shot up to 20.9 percent in the 2020 primary from 6.7 percent in 2018, and 2.1 percent in 2016, according to Tufts’ Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement.

Roughly 50%, according to the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) at Tufts University, a jump of 11 percentage points from 2016 and likely the highest youth voter turnout since the voting age was lowered to 18.

States that mailed ballots to every voter in the pandemic also saw not only higher overall turnout rates, but especially higher youth turnout rates.

Half of Americans ages 18 to 29 cast a ballot in the 2020 general election, an 11-percentage-point increase from 2016, when 39 percent did, according to a new analysis of youth voter turnout from the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at Tufts University.

“The earlier that a young person is engaged in civic life in some way, the more likely that they are to engage in the long term,” said Abby Kiesa, deputy director of CIRCLE.

CIRCLE Director Kei Kawashima-Ginsberg co-authors an op-ed about the Educating for American Democracy Roadmap and its potential to transform K-12 civics in the United States.

A 2016 research study by the Tufts University’s Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning found that 20 percent of “youth with college experience cited a lack of transportation as a reason for not voting.

The project, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the U.S. Department of Education, is the result of collaboration and discussion among 300 scholars, educators and practitioners, including CIRCLE Director Kei Kawashima-Ginsberg.

“It demands collaborative effort,” says CIRCLE Director Kei Kawashima-Ginsberg, particularly in light of “challenges that we have faced this past year, and that we may face in the future, too.”