Oregon Special Election Higher Youth Turnout than Mass

So, turns out if you do youth outreach in an election you have higher youth turnout. I know, right? Who knew!?

If you read my take on the returns from the Massachusetts special election for the US Senate race then you know that Mass had some issues with reaching out to young voters. There was some confusion about who was going to do it.. or if it was going to happen...

In the great state of Oregon we have a fantastic organization who has worked for years to get young voters to the polls. The Oregon Bus Project worked the hell out of it and the results were noticeable.

In Massachusetts they had a turnout of 15% of 18-29 year olds for the special election. In the Oregon's special election about 24% turnout of youth voters.

Caitlin Baggott from the Bus says that this is due to a few particularly important factors:

• A year-round and multi-year strategy,
• Populist messaging and policy development,
• Budget (actually spending money on youth outreach
• And finally, which I'll expand on, a focus on field and youth turnout

When it comes to a meaningful field outreach campaign Caitlin points to two major elements

• A strong field campaign matched with a strong media campaign. Oregon Student Association, the Bus Project, and the coordinated campaign registered 30,000 voters--primarily on campuses and youth-dense parts of Portland and Eugene. The campaign led a huge GOTV field program to knock on 300,000 doors. We all phonebanked the hell out of our lists. (The Bus got a "thank you" message today from a voter who decided to vote after getting 15 phone calls from us. Haha.)
• Can't say yet what youth turnout looks like (coming soon!) but we expect it to be better than VA and MA. We're hoping that the lesson for all of us in 2010 is that young people will vote if we (1) Re-Register them, and (2) invest in youth-oriented GOTV. OSA and the Bus executed a huge youth-focused voter registration program in Oregon, and the Bus did youth-focused mail, earned and paid media, and phonebanks. (Trick or Vote for the fall!)

So here's the thing. Do the outreach. I don't care what state you're in... it will make a difference and it could make the difference enough to win your election. Yesterday, was the Illinois special election and Julie Hamos who was running for Congress lost by 700 votes. Elections can be won or lost by young voters if you know how to do the outreach.