News

The Andrew Goodman Foundation (AGF) is excited to launch our 2024 Campaign to the Polls in preparation for the General Election on Tuesday, November 5th! AGF’s 2024 Campaign to the Polls is designed to activate and mobilize young voters, who are part of the Andrew Goodman Vote Everywhere program and beyond, to make their voices heard at the ballot box. Through our campaign, we hope to reach 135,000 young voters, register 10,000 voters, and highlight thirty student democratic engagement stories related to the campaign. 

“At The Andrew Goodman Foundation, we see civic engagement as more than registering to vote or casting a ballot in one election. That’s why our 2024 Campaign to the Polls captures many different strategies and metrics, including poll working, civic education, peer-to-peer engagement, and stories of young people breaking down structural barriers to voting,” says Caroline Smith, AGF’s Director of Programs.

Milestones:

• NVRD
  • The 2024 Campaign to the Polls began with National Voter Registration Day (NVRD) on Tuesday, September 17th. NVRD is a coordinated day of massive voter registration efforts by volunteers and organizations nationwide. Andrew Goodman Campus Teams celebrated NVRD by hosting tables with food and activities, organizing voter registration rallies, engaging speaker panels, and more. 
• National Voter Education Week
  • Following the push to register voters on NVRD, National Voter Education Week (October 7-11) will focus on engaging with voters who are looking to learn more about the 2024 Election and to explore the options on how they can vote. The hope is for these events to result in voters in these campus communities to feel informed before casting their ballot in November. 
  • As members of the National Voter Education Week Steering Committee, AGF will be co-hosting a training on phone and text-banking in partnership with NVEW, Vote Early Day, and VoteRiders. Open to anyone, this training will provide context on the effectiveness of peer-to-peer outreach, and set attendees up to join or organize a phone or text-bank of their own. The training will feature the Andrew Goodman Campus Team at Bowling Green State University!
• Vote Early Day
  • In the 43 states and DC that allow it, Vote Early Day is celebrated on October 29 to promote early voting. In states with and without early voting, our goal is to receive 2,500 pledges to vote in the 2024 Election. Listen to this episode of the Live The Legacy Podcast with Vote Early Day to learn more about how and why you should vote early. 
• GOTV
  • Campus teams host a variety of events throughout the semester in preparation for the election, including weekly tabling, class presentations, debate watch parties, candidate forums, dorm storms, election bingo and trivia, and so many more! Our goal is to host at least 600 of these events as part of our 2024 Campaign to the Polls within the 66 Andrew Goodman Vote Everywhere campus communities.
• Election Day
  • Election Day is full of opportunities to get involved, with Ambassadors hosting parties at the polls, facilitating group walks or transportation to the polls, answering last minute questions, working with professors to use class time to vote, helping students print compliant voter IDs, and assisting with same-day voter registration where possible. With the final push for voter registration and participation over, our hope is for Ambassadors to watch election results come in knowing they made voting possible, more accessible, or less daunting for many first-time and returning voters. 

• Election Hero Day (11/6)
  • To thank those who make our elections possible, Election Hero Day is celebrated on Wednesday, November 6, the day after the Election. Poll workers dedicate their time to our democracy and ensuring voters can let their voices be heard in local, state, and federal elections. Our goal is to recruit at least fifty poll workers ahead of the 2024 Election, and to continue supporting partners like Power the Polls. Listen to this episode of the Live The Legacy Podcast with Power the Polls to learn more about the importance of volunteering to keep elections safe and accessible. 

“We know that the elections in 2024 and beyond will affect our young people most deeply, and I am incredibly proud of the role we and our Andrew Goodman Campus Teams are playing in mobilizing and empowering this next generation of leaders” says Caroline Smith.

The Andrew Goodman Foundation is committed to providing necessary resources and tools for our network to get out the vote and continue making young voices and votes a powerful force in our democracy. Consider making a donation to support our 2024 Campaign to the Polls to help us in building a just, sustainable future for the young voters of today and tomorrow. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mia Matthews is the Program and Communications Manager at The Andrew Goodman Foundation. In her position, she works with student leaders and in communications surrounding their work. She lives in Boston, Massachusetts.