Talk to new voters when they can hear you
How 'civic transitions' can help us build a 100% Democracy
Dear Friends,
I can’t wait to kick off the 100% Democracy Celebration later this month! It’s going to be so amazing to come together to celebrate bold ideas moving America towards 100% voter participation.
Today, I’m excited to introduce you to ‘civic transitions’ one of the bold ideas we’ll be exploring at the 100% Democracy Research and Design Symposium coming up in April.
The term “Civic Transitions” was coined by Dr. Melissa R. Michelson of Menlo College and Carmen Liñero-Lopez of the Students Learn Students Vote Coalition in an op-ed for The Fulcrum this fall.
In the average lifetime there are a handful of major transitions during which an individual can reinvent themselves and their place in society. These are moments that stay with us forever, like moving to a new city, starting a new job, or joining the military.
The long-term health of our country depends on our ability to foster democratic participation as a core tenet of our population's identity. To do that, we need to create successful "civic transitions" for every American.
Most Americans will experience some kind of major life transition in the next decade. These times of transition, especially for young people, are an opportunity to shape their civic identity … — but only if we commit to reaching them where they are.
This is a powerful idea. The concept of ‘Civic Transitions’ has major implications for the work that many 100% Democracy co-hosts are doing at the local level. This includes work with healthcare providers (Vot-ER!), municipal government (Democracy Cities!), higher education institutions (SLSV Coalition!), businesses (Civic Alliance and Democracy is Good for Business!) and many other community institutions.
Promoting voter engagement is only a small part of what a healthcare provider or municipal government or college or business does. All efforts to embed democracy within these institutions must make hard choices about when to talk to new voters. The concept of Civic Transitions helps us make those choices. It helps us make better use of scarce time and resources by focusing on transition moments when the research tells us new voters are much more likely to be open to adopting a more civic identity that includes voting in every election.
New research from Dr. Michelson’s team at Menlo College suggests that this approach is extremely powerful. Scholars assessed the impact of the SLSV Coalition’s Ask Every Student program. This program applies the concept of Civic Transitions with nearly 200 higher education institutions. These institutions focus many of their voter registration and education efforts specifically on the moment when students transition to college. A survey of 2,267 students at 14 of these institutions showed particularly large effects for first year students who had been mobilized in this transition moment. Follow up focus groups were also suggestive of significant community spillover impact as students went on to mobilize friends and family after being mobilized themselves in the moment of transition to college.
At the 100% Democracy Research and Design Symposium this April, we’ll be exploring ways to apply the concept of Civic Transitions in a variety of contexts. How do people interact with city government or healthcare providers or businesses or other institutions during major life transitions? How might we design tools to embed effective voter education in those moments?
This is an urgent question for the 100% Democracy movement. Social science research (and personal experience!) tells us that people are unwilling to change their identity almost all of the time. Openness to change is the rare exception. We should seize the opportunities we have to talk to new voters during these precious moments of transition when they can hear us.
Best, Sam
