GO VOTE: A Community Change Initiative
Conner Erickson, Dave Keuhl, Cory Madden,
Kelley Ritz, Chris Rozell

Our answer is the world's hope; it is to rely on youth. The cruelties and obstacles of this swiftly changing planet will not yield to obsolete dogmas and outworn slogans. It cannot be moved by those who cling to a present which is already dying, who prefer the illusion of security to the excitement of danger. It demands the qualities of youth: not a time of life, but a state of mind, a temper of the will, a quality of the imagination, a predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the love of ease.
-- Robert F. Kennedy, South Africa, 6-6-1966

Robert F. Kennedy, a great leader and citizen, recognized and spoke out for the importance of the youth for our future and our succession. Hope is instilled in the youth of our nation to one day lead this country and help to solve major conflicts and crisis facing the world. One way that we have an impact on what decisions are made and who makes them is voting. Voting allows for citizens to exercise their democratic right and for their voices to be heard. This is why, we as a group, have collaborated for our Community Change Initiative. We see youth voting as one of the most imperative issues facing our community today.

As a group we represent a very broad part of the DUs campus. Our group of five, Tyler Gerk, Dave Kuehl, Cory Madden, Kelley Ritz and Chris Rozell, has similarities in our lives at DU, but all come from vastly different backgrounds. We did not join a group because we were friends, but rather for our passion and experience for this issue.

Tyler Gerk is an AUSA senator. Youth voting obviously has affected him in his short career at DU because he was elected to his position. Being a Political Science Major, he looks at this problem as one that he will have to deal with for most of his life. He feels that there is a logical way to solve this problem that plagues our youth. He knows this campus inside and out and can find a connection that our group needs within the school.

Dave Kuehl is the president of the Pioneers Present Committee for University of Denver Programs Board. His connections inside of DU will provide great assistance, but his ability to produce a well planned event will be invaluable. He is a Finance/ Marketing Major here at DU, and is the only business major in our group. His style of thinking will be drastically different, and will want us to create a plan of action that we can adhere to. He will be able to keep us on task and geared towards progress.

If Dave Kuehl is the anchor that keeps us on task, Cory Madden is the one tied to the other end reaching for the stars. Being a Philosophy Major, Cory brings the imagination that has helped us set an elevating goal. He brings such a different view to the group that one might consider him a detriment, but nothing could be further from the truth. His creativity will allow for us to attack the issue of youth voting at its core and at different angles. He believes that much of the issue of youth voting is intangible and that a philosophical answer is the right way to approach the issue. Time will tell, but contrasting beliefs, especially at the start of our CCI, is exactly what we need, and thats what Cory gives us.

Kelley Ritz is a double major International Studies and Economics. However, it is her understanding of the Non-Profit sector that will be the most value to our group. She serves on the board a Non-Profit organization, as well as various committees and continues to serve her community. She will be able to be the intermediary between our group and any of the Non-Profit organizations that we may choose partner with for our CCI. She will be able to provide us insight as to how decisions should be made, in addition to whether the decision is right for our group.

Chris Rozell is also an International Studies Major. He personally oversaw his communitys election in 2005 at Steamboat Springs High School. Through this project he was able to get 90% of the eligible voters at his school to vote. His experience at motivating the youth to vote will be very useful. We will see if we are able to extrapolate on his previous success. But regardless, his understanding of the issue is his biggest asset to the team.

Our group is by far the most diverse and strongest of all the CCIs. It is our groups stance that without one member of our group, we will not be able to combat the issue of youth voting successfully. We will prove to be flexible in our approach to combating the issue of youth voting because with so many intangibles surrounding the issue, success hinges on sculpting our own solution to this very serious problem.


Since 1972, when the minimum age required to vote was decreased to 18 years old, the youth vote has been significantly lower than the rest of the voters in America. Only 185 thousand youth voted in 2002 out of the 637 thousand young people eligible to vote.

We see this same trend very prevalent in Colorado and more specifically, Denver. In 2000, only 36% of the youth, 18-24 year olds, voted in Colorado. Another disturbing fact is that 60% of the youth were registered to vote, so only about half decided to actually vote (Rapid Intelligence).

In recent elections, Colorado has seen some improvement: for example, in 2004, there was a 48% voter turnout for people ages 18 to 24 years old (Rapid Intelligence). However, when we looked more broadly we found that despite this significant improvement of youth voting turnout in 2004, it was still far lower than the state average of 61.7% for overall voter turnout (Rapid Intelligence). We want to not only increase youth voting participation, but we also want to see youth voter turnout match that of any other age group.

In the future, we see the issue of youth voting being much more main stream than it is today. In 2015 the youth voters will make up one third of the American electorate (YVC).

Another important and interesting aspect to analyze is the voting trends among people from varying education levels. High school graduates vote at nearly twice the rate of high school dropouts, and college graduates vote at three times the rate of high school dropouts (Youth Statistics). Is important to keep this in mind for us to target the areas where we will impact the most.


With the problem of youth voting being so widespread all over the country, there are many organizations stepping up to help solve the issue. These organizations come in all different shapes and sizes, from nationwide efforts like MTVs Rock the Vote, to groups of college students like us. It is interesting to see that it is not just young people who are leading these efforts. Americans of all ages see the lack of youth voting as a major issue, and are taking action to fix it.

There are dozens of nationwide efforts to tackle the issue of youth voting. One of these, and perhaps the most well known, is MTVs Rock the Vote. On RtVs Our Mission page on their website, they claim, Rock the Vote is dedicated to protecting freedom of expression and empowering young people to change their world. With the help of entertainment personalities such as actors, musicians, and comedians, RtV engages youth in the political process. Their main objective is to increase youth voter turnout. However, they also focus on getting youth involved anywhere in the political process, whether it be signing petitions, contacting their representatives, or even running for office. Their Choose or Lose campaign has claimed hundreds of thousands of registrations.

People are trying new and interesting ways to connect with the 18-24 year olds in America and get them out to vote. The best way to connect with Generation Y is not always through normal means. 18 in 08 is a documentary, directed by 18-year old David Burstein, which interviews the top political leaders of today, as well as popular activists and student leaders. It explains what is at stake for young people in the upcoming election, and aims to get people registered, voting, and getting involved. 18 in 08 is touring the country, visiting all 50 states, and conducting forums with political figures in universities, with the aim of making the issue pressing to 17-24 year olds throughout the country. It is ideas like these, led by young people themselves, which will be the new wave of initiatives to raise the turnout of youth voters in America.

It is not just nationwide initiatives that are working to help youth voter turnout. There are people in different states and cities all over the country striving to resolve the issue. Whether it be holding information sessions in universities, or going to friends to get them registered, many people realize it is a problem, and are aiming to do something about it. Matthew Segal, a senior at Kenyon College, got together a group of students and founded the Student Association for Voter Empowerment. Their aim is to increase accessibility for young voters. The organization quickly spread to 19 campuses across the country this year. This is just one example of many campus programs to increase voter turnout, especially for the 2008 election. There are dozens of group in Denver alone focused on the issue. People will need to continue to work to make youth feel like they matter because their votes will affect the path of America in our future.


It is generally agreed and factually backed that people age 18-24 do not show up as much to vote as other age groups do. It is also generally acknowledged that youth voters, with the exception of 1992 and 2004, have been showing up the polls in reducing numbers. Studies show that less and less people have been voting in each generation. This characteristic follows suit not only with youth, but also with every age group. Most people, young and old, would say that this is not a good thing. However, there are those people who do not believe that it is really a problem.

One such person is Charles Krauthammer. He is a Time magazine columnist, and has called low voter turnout a leading indicator of contentment. With this idea, people do not vote because they are content with what is going on in politics. They think the political parties are doing such a good job balancing each other out that people feel content with how our government works.

Others feel that there is a problem, but that it is no crisis. In The Good Citizen: A History of American Civic Life (Free Press, 1998) sociologist Michael Schudson found that voter turnout has not been consistently high since the 1920s. In the Progressive Era, reformers got people out to vote by putting on parades, banquets, and many times offering cash rewards.
However, most people would consider low youth voter turnout a huge problem in America. Citizens, and especially youth, are becoming more and more apathetic to our government. They have the feeling that they cannot really change anything, so they should not even bother. People ages 18-24 will be in control of the country in a few decades. They are the future of America. If this generation continues to show low voter turnout, there will be problems with the progression of our country. Many people feel that a higher voter turnout will also mean more involvement with the government in many different aspects. This is what would occur in an ideal democracy, where everyones voice is heard.

There is no consensus in defining the problem of youth voting. However, there is little doubt that we would have a stronger nation if youth played a larger role in participating in politics. There is also no universal agreement as to what the best solution would be. Some people think civic learning should be revived in schools. Others think connecting community service to schoolwork is the best option. Many people think that the biggest issue is just making it easier for youth to get registered. The fact is that the future of America is in this generations hands, and only with strong involvement will we see progress in the direction that the people desire. The majority of Americans, young and old, see youth voting as an important issue that must be dealt with.


Stakeholders are those people who are impacted the most and are also those with knowledge and expertise about the issue. One of the most important steps in the beginning process of our Community Change Initiative is to conduct various relational meetings with stakeholders we have identified around the issue of youth voting. These one-on-one meetings help to provide data about the issue and illuminate potential projects for our group.

The main stakeholders surrounding this issue are, obviously, the youth population of 18-24 year olds. The young people in our country and state are impacted most by this under representation but at the same time are the most responsible. We conducted a one-to-one with a female college student at the University of Northern Colorado who is also very passionate about this issue. Danielle King is working on her college campus and continues at her previous high school encouraging young people to register and vote. She feels that this affects students because these efforts are being made by someone their own age. She relates to these students and shows them why voting and participation matters. She believes that the youth are not ignorant or unconcerned, but rather they do not feel that their one vote matters and the old people running this country dont listen to us anyway. She works to combat and reverse this sad but true outlook many youth have.
Another important group of stakeholders that we identified were local organizations that are committed to increasing youth participation in the election process.

One such organization is the New Voters Project. This large organization that was started in Denver partners with other major organizations, such as MTVs Rock the Vote, in order to get the youth of America voting. We talked with Mary Serbick, Volunteer Coordinator at the New Voters Project.

Another organization and stakeholder that we researched was Kids Voting Denver, which is the local branch of Kids Voting Colorado. We met with Nancy Gilder and Alan McBeth, both from Kids Voting Denver. Ms. Gilder is the Chairwoman and also works at the Mayors Office for Education and Children, while Mr. McBeth is currently the Executive Director. This organization is a civics education program which provides curriculum for Denver Public Schools grades K-12. Ms. Gilder described how they work primarily during presidential election years in various schools, providing students with ballots so that they can experience voting. In the school year before the 2004 presidential election, they had over 8,000 students voting in mock elections. Mr. Gilder elaborated on the process of partnering with DPS and the Denver Elections Commission and how they have successfully incorporated a sustainable program.

Nancy Ulrich is the Vice President of Communications at the Denver League of Women Voters. At this organization they educate and inform the voting public by publishing brochures about issues and candidates free to the public. The Denver League is a unique organization and tackles this issue differently than others. She discussed how members go to grocery stores and fairs in order to register the general public. They also run a program that mentors anyone, especially women, on how to run for office.

A stakeholder on our campus that we met with was Professor Knecht. He is a Professor at DU in the Department of Political Science. He conducts research on political participation and youth voting due to his position and profession and is very passionate and intrigued with this issue. During the one-on-one with Professor Knecht, he described how he went into local high schools, bringing with him clickers. He presented various issues and had the students vote on them. The students were able to see how much their vote actually mattered.

After performing these valuable meetings, we have been able to narrow our focus on what we want to accomplish. We have created potential projects based off the information we received and have also established connections with organizations that we can work with in the future.


There are two solutions to the problems that were stated. When looking at which project to go with for our Community Change Initiative, we sifted through a lot of ideas, some of which will be discussed here. These two projects could be combined and done together; otherwise we could choose to pursue one of them.

The first plan involves our own collegiate setting at the University of Denver. As stated previously, citizens with a college degree are much more likely to vote; however, that does not mean that they know about the steps in the election process. Many students do not know all of the workings of an election or the appropriate paperwork needed to vote via mail-in ballot or absentee ballot. This is a big deal, especially for students that are going abroad and cannot vote any other way. There are students have expressed wanting to vote in the next election, but do not know how to if they are overseas. Simply figuring out the required steps for registering for absentee is one of the plans we are looking at putting into place. This process would not only involve informing students of how to vote, but what they should vote for. Although many college students vote, this does not mean that they are completely informed voters. It is difficult to find information on issues and candidates on our campus that is non partisan. Students should be aware of what is on the ballot before they vote. We want to make this a huge focus of our group.

The other option is to address the problem at the high school level, especially with students that have a smaller chance of going on to a higher education. Mainly, we would be dealing with youth in the lower-class areas of Denver Public Schools. The job would require us to figure out registration, precinct, and polling place information with the help of the Denver Election Commission. Again, helping 18+ year olds with registration and voting help would be completely non-partisan. We would not push anyone one way or another in terms of candidates and issues. This option would be harder to work out, as it requires help from the Denver Public Schools as well as good participation from the students of the schools as well.


A critical part of our project was the creation of our mission statement. This declaration has clarified our purposes, as well as given us a clear and elevating goal that we are continually striving to achieve in this process. We recognize that the lack of youth voting in our nation is shameful and wastes the democratic rights our nation was founded on. Our Community Change Initiative group acknowledges that there numerous ways to go about combating the lack of youth involvement. Projects such as teaming with a local or national voting project, helping to get students registered to vote if theyre abroad, or attempting to bring a polling place are all possibilities our group is exploring. When choosing a specific project, our group is careful that we choose a project that not only has the potential to be highly effective and sustainable but also reflects our groups true and most passionate interests.

Our CCI group wants to explore and come to understand the true reasons as to why youth voter turnout is exceptionally low. We believe the issue goes beyond simply informing youth about the issues, the candidates, and different referendums they would be voting on. Our group feels that to increase youth voter turnout, voting must become more of a societal norm where voters recognize the importance of their involvement in the voting process. To do this, our CCI group will look to inform youth about the general importance of voting and having our voices be heard, whether its in the upcoming 2008 Presidential election or our Universitys own senate elections.

Overall, our CCI group has formed the following mission statement upon combining our interests with our groups aspirations for this project. We, the Youth Voting PLP team at the University of Denver, believe that the lack of youth involvement in our states and countrys elections is a serious problem in this community, contributing to under-representation of the youth populous and concerns. We propose to register and inform the youth ages 18-25. We believe that this will help solve the problem by enabling the youth to engage in their communities and voice their opinions. To implement this solution we intend to create a program that would educate and promote youth involvement in the election process.


Our Community Change Initiative group recognizes that we currently have numerous project possibilities, and, therefore, when asking ourselves what we want to accomplish, we understand that there are several avenues to explore. Overall, the overlying goal of our group is to increase voter turnout, specifically within the youth population, and establish a sustained thinking that voting is important and meaningful. Though more specifically, we want to raise public awareness of the importance of voter involvement and we wish to do this by educating the youth population.

Our project will aim to engage a greater number of youth in the voting process in not only the upcoming 2008 Presidential election, but also in their local governments and schools. We believe that by starting at the lowest levels, like schools and local governments, youth can come to realize the importance of their vote first on a small scale. Once the youth population can come to realize their vote really does have influence in making democratic decisions, they will be more inclined to continue to involve themselves in all levels of voting. Also, after youth can begin to see their vote is meaningful they will be more inclined to involve themselves in the voting process for the long-term.

An additional avenue our project could also explore would be looking to develop and establishing a polling place on the University of Denvers campus. The majority of the students at DU do not have their own cars for transportation to local polling stations. Also, students have little time during a week day that they can devote one to three hours to standing in line and casting their ballot. A polling location on campus would bring in thousands of additional votes, the majority of them being from the youth population age 18 to 24. In order for our group to pursue this goal, we would need to gain support from not only the University itself, but also from the State of Colorado and any additional federal contacts. Bringing a polling place to the University of Denver campus would be an extremely impacting project that would directly help capture a larger amount of youth votes. However, this project would also be one of the biggest endeavors our group could look to take on, with our limited number of people and individual time restrictions we may be taking on a project too large for our groups capacity.

Overall, our group wants to organize a project that will initiate an excitement among youth voters. We believe that voting needs to be a societal norm and a regular practice that involves at least 75% of the population. In order to do this, todays youth must come to accept voting as part of their role as a citizen; it is the youth of today that can shape the habits of tomorrow. For the youth to become engaged in the voting process, they can begin by simply voting in school elections. Approximately 1,250 students were involved in the University of Denvers Senate election this past spring, even though our student population is almost 5,000 students. If youth students begin by regularly voting in these smaller local elections, where the leaders affect the constituents the most, they can begin to see how the democratic system can be a success that involves all the nations citizens.


In order to capture the entire essence of our issue and show to everyone, especially the youth, that this is a troubling problem, we had to conduct essential research. This research was done so as to find the true causes of low youth-voter turnout. There was a lot of data and statistics on low voter turnout, but little as to why these trends existed. This is still an ongoing research task to help with our final project.

Our proposed project(s) hopes to address the issue by looking at the variable of education. On the one hand, people with a college education (or the equivalent) vote at a relatively high percentage compared to those with only a high school education. With this in mind, our project has been designed to look at both relative groups of citizens. For those with a high school education, we hope to go to high schools in low-income areas and work with students to see the importance of voting. For those within the college system, we will work on the appropriate paper work for absentee ballots, as those that are going abroad next year have issues with voting in such a big election, yet being away from home. We also are looking at getting a polling place on campus, and possibly even an informal discussion about candidates and issues (nonpartisan) to help students see all the sides of the issues.
 
Since all of our members seem to be very passionate about the issue, the problem of a non-committed group seems to be of little importance. We each have our own ways of looking at this issue, and each one of us has our own reasons for choosing such a project. With a clear, defined goal we can focus that energy and passion on definitive areas of our CCI.
The community also has interests, and they must be addressed in this proposal. The Denver community must get something out of our project if we intend to obtain their support on this issue. The biggest incentive for the youth, who are the focus of this project is to end the vicious cycle of candidates not listening to our issues because we do not vote, and we, as a whole, not voting because candidates do not listen to our issues. This is easier said than done, but this would be the biggest chance for our voices to be heard in the community. The youth of not only our community but also communities around America are the people that will be leading this country into the future. It is vital that we get the voices out sooner rather than later. With the youth of Denver being heard, the community is rewarded with an informed youth voting populous that can and will be an integral part of both the political system in the future and participation in their communities.
However, our largest obstacle is the issue of sustainability. With most of the group members leaving to study abroad during the fall quarter of 2008, we will not be here to help coordinate and urge the youth population to vote. We can get a lot done between now and the end of the year, but we will have to find a way to keep this sustainable through the elections next year.

Our other issue is going to be trying to quantify a result at the end of this academic year. With few, if any, elections being held between now and then, we will have little data on the kind of impact we have had on the political arena without an election. Therefore, our results will have the biggest impact on a national election, and it is here that we will be able to quantify our results of the CCI.

We considered doing this entire project alone but found that it would be extremely difficult to try and sustain our ideas through the elections of next year without a solid base. That solid base will be a group that already has been established and well recognized that will be able to help us even when we are not here during fall quarter of 2008.

We hope that our CCI will create a lasting impact on the community by keeping our youth involved in the political process and aware of their responsibilities as citizens. By working with a group, we also hope to establish a reputation within Denver as being a city with highly informed and involved voters in the 18-25 year-old range with turnout rates higher than the average turnout rates across America.


At the end of this first process, we have developed an overarching goal for our Community Change Initiative. Our goal is to increase awareness, commitment, change, participation, and knowledge of the voting process in order to increase not only the number of youth voters in Denver but the number of youth voters making informed decisions on issues and candidates not based on party lines but on how they truly feel. We want to truly impact our campus and establish a successful, fun program that people talk about. We hope for our efforts to empower the youth in our community in order to generate change in their lives. We want the youth to change their mentalities about their impact on our society and to increase their participation in all aspects of the political process. This participation can occur on many levels, whether it is simply becoming informed on issues, voting in their schools elections, or running for local office. We want them to be aware that they can vote and make a difference.

To reach this goal and establish a program, we must first decide on an organization to partner with that has expertise in this type of project and is also willing to work with us on establishing it and maintaining it beyond this school year. This organization can provide us with invaluable information on how to approach and speak with the Denver Elections Commission and the Colorado Secretary of State, in addition to finding funds and ways of implementing such a project. One organization that we have researched that could potentially help us with this process is Colorado Campus Compact. Colorado Campus Compact works specifically with college campuses to connect them and encourage partnerships with their communities. Chris Rozell has scheduled a one-on-one relational meeting with Theresa Cusimano who is the Executive Director for Colorado Campus Compact in the first week of December.

The next step in accomplishing our goal is to contact the Colorado Secretary of State. In order to hold a voter registration drive and be able to register anyone to vote, it is law that we go through these governmental organizations and do specific training. Kelley Ritz will be contacting these important agencies, as well as setting up an appointment with the Colorado State Department for the necessary training on how to conduct a proper registration drive in early January. We hope to have training completed by February so as to begin getting students all over campus and in the community registered.
We also all feel that successfully getting a polling place on DUs campus would be a very impacting and influential project. We think that it would greatly increase the number of students who vote, while increasing the students participation and enthusiasm for this important democratic right. However, this is a huge task and would require the entire groups involvement and commitment. Kelley Ritz and Chris Rozell will have the job of contacting the Denver Elections Commission and finding out the proper steps and requirements in applying for a polling place. Our group will have to create a meaningful case as to why we want a polling place on campus. Since this a huge project, we will need to start right away. In early January, we will begin contacting the DEC. Based on what they tell us, we will begin to issue jobs to the members of our group in order to fulfill the necessary requirements.

The information session/voting program that we hope to initiate on campus will require support on campus from students, faculty, the University, and the outside community. Since we will be working on implementing a project on campus, Dave Kuehl, Cory Madden and Tyler Gerk will be utilizing their connections on campus to find out how to create such an event and all of the necessary steps required to getting it approved. They will begin to contact University officials in January and early February. Dave Kuehl will also be in charge of advertising for the program that we hold on campus, so by March he will need to find ways for our group to raise funds and to effectively reach the entire campus and community. Cory Madden will be contacting the International House at DU to find out what is already in place regarding education on how to vote abroad and how we can increase this education to make sure every student knows how to complete a mail-in or absentee ballot before they travel.

Cory Madden, with his ability to engage students and connect with students, will be in charge of planning the information session, such as creating the questions and issues to ask and discuss. This will inform the students and community on issues, candidates, and various processes in the election process. We will then have everyone vote on issues and candidates after the discussion. Tyler Gerk will be in charge of obtaining a large number of clickers so that we will have an electronic system of voting where everyone will see how much their vote matters. They will need to do this by end of March before our project takes place.

Our entire group is very dedicated to this imperative issue facing our communities and, more specifically, our campus. We have set clear, elevating goals that we are going to be continually striving to achieve throughout this Community Change Initiative process. We are overwhelmingly excited about working with various organizations, the Denver Elections Commission, our campus, and our community to implement a program that would have a meaningful impact. We want people to always remember our CCI.

Works Cited

"About RtV." Rock the Vote. 16 Nov. 2007 <www.rockthevote.com>.
"About the Film." 18 in '08. 16 Nov. 2007 <www.18in08.com>.
Marks, Zach. "Saving the Youth Vote." Campus Progress. 6 Aug. 2007. Yale U. 17 Nov.
2007 <http://www.campusprogress.org/fieldreport/1827/saving-the-youth-vote>.
"The Youth Vote: Defining the Problem and Possible Solutions." Carnegie Reporter.
Spring 2001. Carnegie Corporation of New York. 15 Nov. 2007 <http://www.carnegie.org/reporter/02/vote2000/vote.html>.
Rapid Intelligence, "Colorado Government Statistics." StateMaster. 2007.
StateMaster.com. 13 Nov 2007 <http://www.statemaster.com/red/state/CO-colorado/gov-government&all=1>.
"Youth Statistics." Youth Democrats of America. 2007. Youth Democrats of America. 13
Nov 2007 <http://www.yda.org/tools/19/youth-statistics>.
YVC, "Facts About Young Voters." Youth Vote Coalition. 2006. Youth Vote Coalition.
13 Nov 2007 <http://www.youthvote.org/vpr/facts.cfm>.

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