In the News

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.

“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.”

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.

In Georgia, youth voters made up 20 percent of all ballots cast in the general election, according to the data from CIRCLE.

This was the second election with millennials projected to break turnout records, and the generation that is approximately ages 25 to 40 today is well positioned to have a significant impact on policymaking in the near future and for years to come, said Abby Kiesa, deputy director at CIRCLE.

"As a country, we can do so much more to support young people to participate in democracy more than we do," said Abby Kiesa, the research center's director of impact.