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In November 2020, young voters exercised their electoral power by turning out in record numbers to help Democrats win the White House and other key races. In 2021, however, an onslaught of voter suppression measures being enacted in statehouses could have an outsized impact on those young people, according to voting rights advocates.

鈥淲e鈥檝e seen some pretty concerted efforts to push back against that new engagement from young voters,鈥� says attorney Sean Morales-Doyle, acting director for Voting Rights and Elections at the Brennan Center for Justice.

The Brennan Center has reported that so far this year at least 18 states have enacted 30 laws to make it harder to vote, and more than have been introduced in state legislatures.

Advocates say the increasingly burdensome requirements pose challenges for young people who are newer to electoral participation. Some of them, including college students, may not live in the place where they are registered to vote, making them especially vulnerable to new rules around residence requirements, forms of ID, mail voting, and online voting. They also are more likely to be affected by the .

Morales-Doyle cites two recent examples: a Montana bill requiring students who vote in person to have extra secondary documentation of residence in addition to a student ID, and a new measure in Texas that requires any voter that is sent a confirmation of residence notice to respond within 30 days and include a sworn affirmation.

We are coming off of historic highs, and sustaining that is going to be a challenge.

Young voters represent about one-fifth of all eligible citizens. Close to 50 million young voters were eligible to vote in 2020, and about half of them cast ballots, with the . No state saw a decrease in youth turnout from 2016 to 2020, according to Kelly Beadle, project director for the Independent Voter Registration Report at , the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at Tufts. (CIRCLE defines young voters as those in the first 12 years of eligibility, 18-29 years old).

鈥淲e are coming off of historic highs, and sustaining that is going to be a challenge,鈥� says Beadle. 鈥淭here is no silver bullet.鈥�

The 2020 record turnout did not happen by accident. It reflects intensive outreach by voting advocates who reject the . While parties and candidates have their own get-out-the-vote campaigns, a growing number of nonpartisan organizations have been working to engage young voters and help them overcome the barrage of obstacles. For example, helps voters secure the form of identification required in their states.

Historically, much of the outreach to young voters took place on college campuses. That is starting to change.

鈥淎t Fair Fight, we always say we reach voters where they鈥檙e at,鈥� says Hillary Holley, director of organizing at , the Georgia-based organization started by Stacey Abrams that seeks out voters overlooked in the past because , many of whom are people of color and younger voters. Holley says outreach includes hyperlocal organizing like giving out food at a rural restaurant 鈥渨here a young person might just literally be on the way to pick up some lunch, and all of a sudden they鈥檙e seeing something about voting.鈥�

Fair Fight and other advocates also work with TikTok influencers, hold Instagram live concerts, and put ads on Hulu, YouTube, Snapchat, and other platforms populated by younger people.

鈥淲e leverage culture and technology to really use trusted messengers to reach young people where they are,鈥� says Carolyn DeWitt, president and executive director of . 鈥淚t鈥檚 important that we are combining multiple different strategies to reach the diverse youth that comprise this generation.鈥�

The most recent found that 36% of the youth surveyed are politically active, and the most engaged among this cohort are young Black people, 41% of whom are politically active. In the 2020 election, voters under 30 preferred Biden, with young people of color voting for him by the largest margins, while young White men preferred Trump.

Young voters have so much power.

鈥淭ime and time again in 2020, with Black young people being shot and killed by the police and the uprisings that happened last summer, and voting rights under attack, young people showed up, even in the middle of a pandemic, to say enough is enough,鈥� says Carmel Pryor, communications director of . 鈥淎nd when it came to the election, they took that energy from the streets to the ballot box, and a lot of the wins that we had were because they showed up.鈥�

The alliance supports a of partners and affiliates on the ground in about 20 states working to leverage the political power of young voices. For example, alliance affiliate helped register 50,000 18- to 29-year-olds for the 2020 election in a state where a gun license is a proper form of ID for voting, but student ID is not.

鈥淭exas is OK with gun owners voting, but not with students voting,鈥� says Charlie Bonner, MOVE鈥檚 communications director. 鈥淭hey just can鈥檛 enough of these roadblocks in Texas. I didn鈥檛 think there was much more they could do, but I was incorrect.鈥� (Last month left the state to block Republican colleagues from pushing through even more restrictive voting rules.)

Alliance partner organizes on college campuses and in rural areas along with using digital strategies. A posted last summer reached 10,000 young people in one day. At least half of them were not enrolled in schools, says Arekia Bennett, the executive director. The video was shared on Facebook first and then YouTube and reposted a few weeks before the November election.

After Mississippi Votes signs up young voters, Bennett says, it stays connected to assure they will be ready to vote. On Election Day, volunteers help people waiting in line making sure they have food and water and that port-a-potties are available. (In Georgia, state lawmakers passed a bill that would make it a ).

Another alliance partner, , runs programs on most major college campuses across Kansas and has an advocacy arm that works to oppose voter suppression bills before the legislature. But Loud Light founder Davis Hammet says one new Kansas measure has forced the organization to . Hammet says the overly broad Kansas law that took effect July 1 provides that 鈥渋f someone else even thinks you鈥檙e an election official, it鈥檚 a felony crime.鈥� Loud Light and the League of Women Voters are seeking an injunction, but meanwhile fear arrest if they try to register voters.

鈥淚鈥檓 very fearful of what could happen next year, especially if there鈥檚 no federal legislation to provide some protection,鈥� says Hammet.

The federal legislation activists are pushing includes the , which would help more Americans retain their voting rights, and the companion , which would restore and strengthen the federal oversight provisions stripped out of the 1965 Voting Rights Act by the 2013 .

鈥淲e can鈥檛 organize our way out of this. We鈥檝e got to have federal legislation,鈥� agrees Jesselyn McCurdy, managing director of government affairs at , whose campaign is working on the ground in eight states to combat voter suppression.

The For the People Act passed the House and is stymied in the Senate. The . McCurdy has testified at hearings to establish a legislative record of voting discrimination to help the act withstand anticipated court challenges.

To build support for the bills, the Leadership Conference launched . Rock the Vote built a coalition running a campaign to mobilize young people with a peer-to-peer texting drive that reached 300,000 young voters. Fair Fight Action held a Hot Call Summer campaign with a goal of texting at least 10 million voters in battleground states.

Amid the fight for voting rights on so many fronts, Morales-Doyle of the Brennan Center also cites a 鈥渃ountervailing trend in states that are doing voter-friendly things鈥� that will help younger voters.

At least 25 states have enacted 54 laws with provisions that expand voting access, and more than 900 bills with in the 2021 legislative sessions, according to the Brennan Center update. Friendly measures include automatic voter registration, preregistration for 16- and 17-year-olds, (where your registration goes with you if you move within a state), online voter registration and expanding access to early and mail voting. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 20 states and the District of Columbia had automatic voter registration as of last January.

Another positive tactic focuses on growing voters before they turn 18 through civic education. Rock the Vote, for example, runs a program called that offers free lesson plans to educators, community leaders, and anyone who wants to teach a class on the history and importance of voting.

鈥淵oung voters have so much power,鈥� says Holley of Fair Fight Action. 鈥淚鈥檓 29, and we are not in the minority anymore. If our vote didn鈥檛 matter, you know the Republican Party would not be coming out in historical force to strip away the right to vote. The fight doesn鈥檛 stop.鈥�