JOIN US TO DEFEND THE YOUTH VOTE AND PROTECT OUR ELECTIONS IN NEW YORK AND FLORIDA

It’s going to be up to our generation to restore trust in our democracy and defend our freedom to vote in safe and fair elections. That’s where our GenVote Defenders program comes in.

GenVote Defenders is the largest nonpartisan youth election protection training program in the U.S. The program equips young people with the tools, knowledge, and confidence to engage in nonpartisan election protection efforts:
GenVote Defenders operates in two parts:

  1. We train and support young leaders to mobilize their peers to attend nonpartisan election protection trainings and volunteer as election protection poll monitors or digital monitors.
  2. We collaborate with state election protection coalitions to host youth-focused trainings, which are led by GenVote’s national trainers in partnership with local, nonpartisan election protection experts.

This year, we are recruiting high school and college students in New York to become GenVote Defenders. These students will receive a modest stipend and undergo a several week, cohort-style program with access to GenVote’s training modules, election protection resources, special briefings with election protection experts, and coaching.

In Florida, we will provide small stipends to student volunteers who attend one of our youth-led trainings and complete at least one Election Day shift.

We got each other’s back and we’re going to need a new generation of leaders to make sure our friends, teachers, family members and neighbors can exercise their right to vote.

Join us by applying to become a GenVote Defender (NY) or a nonpartisan youth poll monitoring volunteer (FL) today!

Please email Brendan Cushing at bcushing@genvote.org if you have any questions.

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GENVOTE DEFENDERS PROTECTED OUR RIGHT TO VOTE IN FREE AND FAIR ELECTIONS IN 2024

In partnership with the 866-Our-Vote coalition and the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, All Voting Is Local Arizona, Common Cause, State Voices, and the National ESRN network, GenVote recruited and trained 283 young people in New York, Texas, Arizona, Florida, Nevada, and Michigan to become nonpartisan election protection poll monitors.

In 2024, Generation Vote recruited 18 Defenders who:

  • Participated in bi-weekly cohort calls, received comprehensive training, leadership development, and on-the-ground support from the GenVote national team.
  • Recruited young people to participate in nonpartisan poll monitoring and collectively reached more than 16,684 young people through classroom announcements, tabling, digital peer-to-peer campaigns, flyering, canvassing, email listservs, and other creative engagement strategies.
  • Mobilized 90 youth election protection youth leads across Gainesville, FL; Tallahassee, FL; St. Petersburg, FL; New York City, NY; Rochester, NY; Syracuse, NY; Albany, NY; San Marcos, TX; Sugarland, TX; Houston, TX; Lansing / East Lansing, MI; and Phoenix, AZ.

Over the course of three and a half weeks, we worked with five GenVote trainers who:

  • Hosted 16 state-specific election protection trainings.
  • Completed 22 hours of instruction.
  • Organized youth-led text banks to text 57,136 young people to inform and recruit young people for election protection efforts in Florida and Texas.

GenVote also partnered with Common Cause National on their Democracy Justice League initiative in 2024. GenVote helped recruit young people to participate in Democracy Justice League trainings and a member of our national team helped facilitate one of the virtual trainings offered to youth volunteers across the country.