Diluting the Youth Vote
How voter suppression tactics target young voter participation.
By Diamond Brown and Amelia Letson
The 26th Amendment was a promise that young people would have an equal voice in our democracy. More than 50 years later, young voters are again confronting efforts to contain their political power through voting restrictions designed to limit their participation.
In Louisiana v. Callais, the Supreme Court further weakened the Voting Rights Act, clearing the way for lawmakers to manipulate the electorate rather than compete for it. The ruling squarely targets Black and Brown communities, but its implications do not stop there. This decision builds on a slew of anti-voting rights decisions that continue to narrow the legal pathways available to communities challenging discriminatory district maps and reflects a broader effort to contain the growing power of an increasingly diverse electorate, namely young voters, whose participation is actively reshaping politics.
Young voters ages 18-29 occupy a unique and valuable position in American democracy, and partisan lawmakers know it. Gen Z is the most racially diverse generation in American history and often Democratic-leaning. Many are navigating voting systems for the first time, making these voters especially vulnerable to disenfranchisement and political manipulation. And unlike other groups protected more explicitly under existing voting-rights frameworks, young voters have remarkably few legal safeguards.
That susceptibility is heightened by the fact that youth political power is concentrated in visible, centralized communities such as college and university campuses. Lawmakers understand the political power concentrated in these communities. Over the past several election cycles, young voters have mobilized around issues such as gun violence prevention, abortion access, climate change, housing affordability, labor rights, and the crisis in Gaza with an intensity that has reshaped political outcomes nationwide. That influence apparently has not gone unnoticed.
College campuses, including those serving large minority populations, have increasingly become targets of partisan gerrymandering designed to fracture organizing power and weaken influence. When universities and student-heavy neighborhoods are split and absorbed into older, wealthier, or more conservative districts, the objective is painfully clear: dilute the student vote before it can become politically disruptive.
These tactics do not operate in isolation. As youth turnout has become an increasingly salient political issue, lawmakers across the country have erected new barriers aimed squarely at student voters — from voter ID laws that exclude student or out-of-state IDs, to restrictions on absentee voting, challenges to student residency, and efforts to eliminate on-campus polling sites. In North Carolina, for example, students recently sued state officials after early voting sites were denied at three university campuses, including the nation’s largest Historically Black College and University (“HBCU”). For generations, HBCUs have served not only as educational institutions but also as centers of political organization and civic engagement for Black communities. Now, access to voting on these campuses and others is under attack.
The campaign to make voting harder for young people has even reached Washington. This administration has set its sights on youth voting through measures like the SAVE Act, citizenship verification and absentee voting requirements, and investigations targeting campus voter-engagement programs. Together, these voter suppression tactics make participation harder and political power difficult to build.
Regardless of political affiliation, elected officials should want to empower young people to fully engage in the democratic process. Building strong voting and civic engagement habits during adolescence benefit both young people and their communities. At a time when youth dissatisfaction with democracy is at an all time high, we must ensure that young people are given the agency to cast their ballots and exercise their fundamental right to vote. To protect our democracy, we must oppose voter suppression, register to vote and cast our ballots, and stand in firm, united, and unwavering opposition to attacks on youth engagement.
Diamond Brown is a senior policy counsel at Democracy Defenders Action. Amelia Letson is a policy associate at Democracy Defenders Action.
Voter education, registration and actually voting are becoming more urgent and important by the day.
Democratic organizations, please do not just concentrate your efforts on whom to select for primaries and/or younger leaders. If we all want younger politicians, we MUST concentrate on engaging many more young voters.
Young people should automatically be registered to vote while they are still in high school. Even if they are in the service or an out of state college they should be able to vote by mail without having to register in a location that’s only temporary for 4 years. I was registered to vote my senior year of high school. If my memory serves me correctly voter registration was tied to graduation requirements. The Board of Registrars came out to the schools during the fall semester and registered us. People who are already 18 by early November election day are released into the system so they may participate in voting. Remaining students are sent a voter identification card with the voting information on the card and where to vote in person. Voting by mail, extended voting helps young voters the same as it does every one else. Logistics have to be worked out if you have a student or a service member who is eligible to vote.