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

This year, we are scaling up our GenVote Defenders program to make sure our friends, families, neighbors, and communities can vote with dignity, free from fear and intimidation, and that the will of the people prevails.

GenVote Defenders is a first-of-its-kind nonpartisan, youth-led cohort program that mobilizes high school and college students to serve as election protection captains, build distributed volunteer teams, recruit Gen Z poll monitors, and defend against voter intimidation. Defenders will recruit their own volunteer teams to plug into nonpartisan poll monitoring and mobilize those teams for post-election activities including ballot curing and canvass board and election certification monitoring.

GenVote Defenders will receive a $750 stipend and join a cohort-style leadership development program with access to GenVote’s unique electoral justice trainings, election protection resources, special briefings with election defense experts, and coaching.

Program dates and application deadline

Applications are accepted on a rolling basis until all positions are filled. The updated application deadline is September 14, 2026. The program kicks off the week of September 14, 2026 and closes the week of November 16, 2026. Applicants are ideally available for an evening welcome orientation call on Tuesday, September 15, 2026.

The ideal Defender

  • Must be a high school or college student, or young person aged 16–34.
  • Must reside in New York, Texas, Arizona, or Florida.
  • Must attend weekly Defender cohort calls.
  • Be available for 3–5 hours a week of in-person and digital recruitment in September and October.
  • Be available for in-person election protection field shifts in late October and November.
  • Be available for in-person or digital post-election ballot curing and certification / canvass board monitoring, and, as needed, prepare to mobilize to ensure that every vote is counted and the will of the people prevails.

We strongly encourage people of color, immigrants, women, transgender and non-binary people, and people with disabilities to apply.

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

Sign up


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.