Generation Vote is a left-of-center activism organization that promotes left-leaning to far-left election administration policies and simultaneously operates get-out-the- vote initiatives targeted to young people, particularly on college campuses. ¹

The group was formed at the onset of the 2018 election cycle, and during the 2020 election it opposed the reelection campaign of President Donald Trump. The group supports policies including automatic voter registration, giving 16-year-olds the right to vote, giving illegal immigrants the right to vote in local elections, and making Washington, D.C., the 51^st state. The group also supports the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which would give the federal government more authority over state election systems, and has claimed that the U.S. Senate “abandoned democracy” by failing to pass the legislation by ending the senate’s legislative filibuster rule. ^{1 2}

Background

Generation Vote was founded in 2017 ahead of the 2018 election as a youth voter outreach project of left-of-center political advocacy organization Common Cause. The group was initially founded as a project of Common Cause New York and subsequently expanded to cover other states and focus on national issues. ^{3 2}

Since 2018 the organization has been a lead youth organizer for the Let NY Vote coalition, a left-of-center election advocacy group that has promoted many left-leaning elections administration policies in New York City including automatic voter registration, no-excuse early voting, and consolidated primaries. ^{4 2}

Since its founding as a New York-centric organization, the group has expanded its presence to Florida and California at the statewide level and operates many campus chapters at various colleges and universities in the United States with a concentration of chapters in New York state. ¹

The group was founded by Breanna Cea, a research associate at the left-of-center Brennan Center for Justice, while she was a student at Binghamton University in New York. ⁵

Policy Stances

Generation Vote supports many left-leaning to far-left election policies at the state and federal level. The group supports automatic voter registration, restoration of voting right for felons, time off from school for voting, lowering the voting age to 16, mandating polling sites located on college campuses, and the establishment of a “democracy voucher” program in New York City that would use government money to fund electoral campaigns. ²

At the federal level the group has expressed support for a Green New Deal and left-leaning immigration policies and has promoted the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, which would provide more federal oversight to elections and stated that the senate’s failure to pass the bill amounted to the chamber “abandoning our democracy.” ²

The group has also stated that its organizing during the 2020 election cycle was with the goal of defeating then-President Donald Trump, whose administration, according to the group’s published agenda “would push us closer to a burning world, promote violence against AAPI elders and continue to rip Black and Brown families apart.” ²

Affiliated Groups

The group has partnered with groups including the Election Protection Project, National Voter Registration Day, Citizens Union, Plus1Vote, the NAACP, and the New York Civil Liberties Union. The group has also held documentary screenings of a short documentary titled Rigged: The Voter Suppression Playbook which was created by Generation Vote along with the NAACP and Y-Vote to promote left-of-center talking points around election integrity policies. ²

1. “We Are GenVote: Movement DNA: A Practical Guide to Fighting for Our Generation’s Future.” Generation Vote. March 29, 2022. Accessed April 7, 2022.  https://www.genvote.org/pdf/THE%20GENVOTE%20MOVEMENT%20DNA.pdf
2. “Impact Report 2020.” Generation Vote. Accessed April 7, 2022. https://www.genvote.org/pdf/GenVote%20Impact%20Report%202020.pdf
3. “Generation Vote NYC.” Common Cause New York. Accessed April 7, 2022. https://www.commoncause.org/new-york/our-work/voting-elections/generation-vote-nyc/
4. “Wins.” Let NY Vote. Accessed April 7, 2022. https://letnyvote.org/wins
5. “Our Team.” Generation Vote. Accessed April 7, 2022. https://www.genvote.org/team.html