The Young Vote

Major funding for "The Young Vote" film was provided by...

The Decurion Corporation A complete list of all our donors can be found at theyoungvotefilm.com.

- Really excited to get started with you today.

My name is Sophia DeLoretto-Chudy.

I'm the campaign manager for Women's March Action, and this is a program called the Youth Get Out the Vote program.

Thank you so, so much for joining us.

We know that young people have the highest number of eligible voters in United States history.

I mean, they can literally change elections.

But we also know that, in 2016, 50%, half of the largest generation of eligible voters in United States history, didn't show up to vote on Election Day.

- This fight has been 400 traumatic years of systemic injustices that have further oppressed minorities in every single facet of their life.

The chains of trauma are now too heavy to carry, and we must let them go.

We have to start to fight.

[ Cheers and applause ] Voting has, over a long period of time, become a lot of games.

It's become a lot of distraction.

And I think that sometimes activism can step in and, do a lot of times, what we want voting to do.

When you're doing activism, you know that you can affect the here, the now.

I said, no justice!

- No peace!

- Hey, no justice!

- No peace!

- I have DACA, right?

So, as someone who, you know, can't vote myself, I feel more strongly than ever, I think, a sense of duty to share this kind of hope that I have and understanding why participating in our democracy is so crucial.

- I believe in some very liberal ideas.

I believe in some more conservative ideas.

I might not be of age to vote yet, but I fully intend on voting as a non-party affiliate, and I want to be able to vote in the primaries when I turn 18.

- Right now, our political system is broken.

A lot of young people just feel like their vote doesn't matter anymore.

We risk silencing an entire generation of voters.

So I want to help change that narrative.

- Young people are getting riled up, and now that this knowledge is widespread, that young people have the power to make a difference, I think there's a reckoning.

- Stand for us or beware -- the voters are coming.

[ Crowd chanting "Vote them out!"

] - Get ready to get voted out by us!

[ Cheers and applause ] - You're gonna be working a little bit in Texas today, just getting them ready to vote, and then moving into Alabama and then, as well, Maine.

I am working as the campaign manager for the political arm of the Women's March.

It's called Women's March Action.

So, a lot of what I do right now is I train people on how to text-bank or phone-bank.

By law, we are required to send each text individually, so you will just need to hit the send button as many times as it says right here.

We want to increase voter registration among young people and first-time voters.

We want to emphasize the Black and brown vote.

We want to fill gaps in campaign so that every voter can actually be reached.

Remember -- have fun.

You are making a difference.

Have a great night.

See you next week.

Oh, shit!

Boom.

We contacted 719,469 young voters.

That's why I can sleep at night.

[ Chuckles ] Crushed it.

Crushed it!

I grew up as the daughter of a single mother who was a public school teacher in Eugene, Oregon.

I remember one of my first "political" activities was going to protest the state capitol when the Wisconsin teachers went on strike 'cause my mom is a public school teacher.

We all dressed in red.

And I was in, like, fifth grade maybe?

And I just remember going to the state capitol and, like, demanding that teachers get paid more.

And I was like, "Oh, this is all you gotta do?"

[ Chuckles ] "Like, get some people together, make some signs to effect change?"

I just started doing things that I thought you had to kind of be qualified for and realized that there is no qualification.

You just have to give a shit.

The first time I voted was when I voted for Hillary Clinton.

I was ecstatic.

I was like, "I have waited my whole life to be able "to circle this bubble in on this ballot and put it in the dropbox."

And I was really dedicating my life to electing Hillary Clinton to the presidency of the United States.

Um, and then she lost.

- This is not the outcome we wanted or we worked so hard for.

And I'm sorry that we did not win this election for the values we share and the vision... - I didn't understand how she could have lost and how others didn't feel so enthusiastic.

And then I found out that 50%, half of the largest generation of eligible voters in United States history, didn't show up to vote on Election Day.

I was so hurt by that and angered by that.

I felt so betrayed that I -- I needed to understand why it happened.

And so that's why I set out to write my undergraduate honors thesis on why millennials didn't vote in the 2016 presidential election.

There's a handful of reasons, but I think the most important finding of my entire thesis is that it's not because millennials are apathetic.

It's not because they didn't care.

It's because they didn't trust the system.

And why should they?

Honestly, we grew up learning about gerrymandering.

We grew up with Citizens United... ...watching people pay their way into the highest office in the land.

Why should we trust the formal political system?

And it's not that we don't care.

We care a lot.

I mean, young people are more idealistic now than I think they've ever been.

It's just that they don't funnel it into formal politics.

[ Line ringing ] - So, I'm calling with the Students for Open Primaries campaign.

I was calling you today about Amendment 3, which will be on your ballot this November.

Are you a Florida voter?

- Dariel and I lead Students for Open Primaries, which is a small initiative pushing for the ratification of ballot measure 3 this year in November in Florida.

Basically, this measure would create open top-two primaries in the state of Florida, which would enable all 3.7 million voters who aren't affiliated with the Republican or Democratic parties to vote as non-party affiliates or as whatever party they choose to be a part of in the primaries.

- It would place everybody on one ballot, where all voters can vote, and then the top two vote getters from that election move on to the general election, which is the election you're actually about to vote in.

<i>-Right.</i> - So, did you have any questions about Amendment 3?

And, if not...

Currently in this country, we have a partisan divide between Republicans and Democrats where you have to either line up with the extreme left or the extreme right -- because both sides have gotten more radical over the past few years.

- The past two elections in this country have made a huge part of society say, "Oh, my God, I don't live in the country I thought I lived in."

Under Barack Obama, a lot of people, when he was elected, were like, "Oh, my God, I don't live in the country I thought I lived in."

When Trump was elected, a lot of people were like, "Oh, my God, how can the country do that?"

And we've been tricked into thinking that there are only two options and that everybody is represented by the Democratic Party or the Republican Party.

That's just not true.

- A majority of young people like me -- we choose to become independents or non-party affiliates.

We don't really feel represented in either one of the major political parties.

- 45% of millennials don't register in a party.

They don't identify with the Democratic or Republican parties.

And Gen Z -- about a third of Gen Z, they don't want to be tied to either one of the political parties.

Gen Z and millennials make up such a large portion of the electorate.

If we shut out that many voters, that has some serious consequences on our primaries and our general elections.

- Parties have co-opted our electoral system because in this country we have an electoral system that assumes that you're either a Democrat or a Republican.

And if you choose to register as an independent voter, you are a second-class citizen in the United States.

It affects you in all aspects of the franchise.

- Today is New Hampshire primary day.

- In 2020, for example, 27 million people were shut out of primaries in the United States because they're registered independent.

27 million.

- Florida is a swing state.

We have about equal amounts of Democrat and Republican voters, which makes our elections very, very tight, especially when it comes to the general presidential elections.

So, those 4 million voters who aren't affiliated to those two parties can really become the deciding factor.

- Thanks to gerrymandering and other factors, the primary election is often the only election that matters.

In many states, less than 5% of the electorate are actually deciding who represents 100% of that district or state.

- Amendment 3 suggests opening the primaries, putting all the candidates on the ballot.

That's the party candidates, the third party, the no-party candidates, all on one ballot.

And then everybody votes, and the top two go to the general election.

- And if there's two Republican candidates or two Democratic candidates or two Green Party candidates, why not?

The voters were the ones that voted for that.

I feel like we should stop thinking about party lines and start thinking about the actual elected officials themselves.

A large majority of Florida voters are in support of open primaries and opening up the primaries.

They just don't know what's on the ballot yet.

Amendment 3 -- it's gonna be on your ballot this November.

It's to make Florida a top-two open primary state.

So, getting the word out about the amendment, rather than trying to convince people to change their minds, is really the most important part of this initiative.

If it doesn't pass, then we risk silencing an entire generation of voters.

Half of millennials would be shut out of primary elections if this amendment doesn't pass.

Alrighty.

Um, have a good day.

<i>-Yeah.</i> - [ Speaking Spanish ] The mission of Mi Familia Vota is to engage Latinos all over the country in key states where there are high-density Latino populations.

So, walking them through the citizenship process, and then, once they become citizens, making sure that they're registered to vote and, once they're registered to vote, making sure that they're registered and engaged voters.

So, just a quick glance of what we're looking at in terms of Latinos and Latino impact in Texas, right?

So, one in five of all Latinos in the United States lives in the state of Texas.

So, Latinos make up a 38% share of the Texas population, which is a good chunk, and it's only getting higher, right?

And then nearly half of all Texans under 18 are Latinos.

We know there's about 400,000 Latinos who are gonna turn 18 just in time for this November election.

And so we're super excited because we've been texting them, we've been calling them, right?

We're not just hoping.

We're actually doing the work to make sure that they get out there.

Today we're gonna go out into the streets and actually talk to some of these young people.

- One, two, three.

- One, two, three.

- Vote!

- Vote!

- I was born in Ciudad Jurez, Chihuahua, which is in Mxico, right across the border from El Paso, Texas -- so, very much binational from birth -- and sort of spent most of my childhood, early childhood, kind of on both sides of the border, when obviously I didn't realize what borders meant.

Being undocumented, it was something that everyone kind of knew, but you didn't really talk about it.

And it wasn't until high school -- really, freshman year of high school -- when counselors started talking about college and about what next steps were, what your actual dreams were and how you were gonna -- like, what steps you were gonna take to achieve them.

Came to a realization that there was something that made me different from my peers, and that was that I was missing a 9-digit Social Security number.

Thankfully, I encountered some friends, some classmates who were very outspoken about being undocumented.

They were advocating.

They were going to D.C., to Austin to advocate on all levels.

Like, even though we were immigrants, those elected officials were still representing us and there was still a lot that we could do to advocate for ourselves.

So it was really through those immigrant-rights activists that I kind of was introduced to this world.

As someone who can't vote myself, I feel this sense of duty to make sure that young people, young Latinos can and will make a really big impact in this November election.

- Happy Juneteenth, everyone!

Today is a day of celebration.

Today we celebrate for those who have come before us.

Today we celebrate for those who are here now.

Today we celebrate for those who will come after.

Because given the circumstances, we as Black people were not meant to thrive.

Poverty is not meant to produce greatness.

Police brutality is not meant to produce excellence.

Redlining is not meant to produce opportunity.

But despite all this, we, Black people, survive.

Despite all this, we achieve.

Despite all this, we love.

Despite what systemic injustices we face, we put our lives on the line and stand up for what we know is right and necessary.

I started my activism journey in school.

My mentor and teacher, Matthew Kaufman, was the person who kind of showed me that not only, like, can you have these values internally, but then you can take these values that you have and then do good throughout the world, not only through activism, but through protesting.

He really gave me this expansive view of, like, everything that you can do just with your passion and your drive and some hard work.

- The way I approach civics, my students, as an assignment, they have to write a legislator every single year.

And when they write a legislator, they have to identify one issue they care about in the community and explain why it's an issue, why they care about it, how it's personally impacted them.

- High school students leading the way?

A piece of legislation has now been pre-filed by Louisville Representative Attica Scott, requiring middle and high schools in Kentucky teach African-American and Native American history.

- I think not only helps African-American students know who they are internally and know their greatness, but it helps also other race students to know about that part of African-American history.

It allows African-Americans to see themself in what they're learning.

I think it is just, on so many different levels, something that could be amazing.

- So important, one, that students brought this to me as a legislator, that they were willing to say, "I'm gonna reach out to a state rep and ask them to file this bill."

And in their request, they said, "We don't feel like we're being taught a true history of ourselves as African-American students."

- We saw a need for people to have better understanding, and we saw a need for people to be able to tell their own stories.

I definitely identify as a Black woman, and it's really difficult for me 'cause my mom's white and my dad's African.

So that's even like -- I'm kind of like the perfect example of African-American.

- We came here to Louisville for a job.

We were one of the first mixed families, and where we live, we dealt with a lot of racism.

We've had poops, you know, thrown at our door.

We've had our neighbors say that the neighborhood has gone downhill.

This was where I really realized the tensions and the reality of the differences of me being white and my kids being Black.

My daughter is both, but when people see her, they see her as an African-American woman.

When they see my son, they see him as an African-American male.

His world in the house is normal, but as soon as he walks out that door, it's everybody else's paradigm.

- Black lives matter!

- Black lives matter!

- Black lives matter!

- Black lives matter!

- After George Floyd, it completely shifted what I was doing.

So, a lot of my activism has been protesting, has been marching.

A lot of times young people use activism, use social media, use these different platforms because they know that, you know, my vote is important and, yes, I need to vote, but also there's ways that I can impact change that can be more direct, more immediate, and can be in the right now that will help people more than a vote will.

- Alright.

Let's see.

There she is -- first female VP.

We're gonna make that extra dark.

Voter turnout is one of the ways that we measure the health of a democracy.

We can tell that if people aren't turning out, they don't feel like the democracy that they're living in is working for them.

As I was finishing up my thesis, I was, like, really thinking to myself, "Maybe young people just won't vote in general from here on out."

When the Parkland shooting happened... - In a little over six minutes, 17 of our friends were taken from us.

- ...and it changed what I thought about young voters.

- We are going to make this the voting issue.

We are going to take this to every election, to every state and every city.

We're going to make sure the best people get in our elections to run, not as politicians, but as Americans, because this -- this is not cutting it!

[ Cheers and applause ] - It was the first time in modern history where something happened and everyone directed their attention to the vote.

They were literally calling out senators by name.

- $3,303,355.

The amount of money Marco Rubio has received from the National Rifle Association.

[ Indistinct shouting ] - Pointing out exactly how much money they got from the NRA and telling all of their peers, "Registered to vote so you can vote them out.

Your friends died because these people are corrupt."

And we gave them the incentive to vote.

And they showed up on election day.

And we flipped the House.

We won.

- When we vote, this is what happens.

- Thanks to you, tomorrow will be a new day in America.

[ Cheers and applause ] - The amount of support that we've seen for the movement for Black lives... - Whose streets?

- Our streets!

- Whose streets?

- Our streets!

- ...people gathering in the streets in rallies, in protests is going to help push people to vote in 2020.

I think people are finally angry enough to do something about it.

It is young people especially who stood up and said, "This is enough."

- [ Chanting ] Black lives matter!

Black lives matter!

[ Crowd chanting indistinctly ] - I think when they can see that protesting isn't enough, and that state and local elections actually affect the things that you care about, potentially even more than the presidency does, I think they're turning out to vote.

- Elena!

You need a different face mask.

- Aww, thank you.

- And then I got three, if your mom wants one.

- Oh my God.

Dude, you're the best.

Is that upside down?

- No.

It's good.

I'm gonna a good picture.

[ Camera shutter clicks ] - I don't know if open primaries is going to pass or not.

We've had a lot of resistance in the past few months, especially from the major two parties.

They hate open primaries because it stops them from having control over their primaries.

Taking away those closed primaries takes away the Democrat and Republicans' right to a spot in the general election.

And it also makes them need to cater to all voters versus just Democrat or Republican voters.

- Only a handful of voters, the most partisan voters, participate in a closed primary.

And when that happens, politicians only have to be accountable to just those voters.

They don't have to be accountable to all their constituents.

And it perverts the entire way they act in their state legislature.

- It's really hard, especially since I'm working with a campaign that is so despised by the two major parties.

I've been in calls where people have, you know, cussed us out, have stuck the middle finger up, you know, calling me derogatory terms and saying, you know, "F you."

It's really toxic because I'm only 16.

That was kind of a shock to my system a little bit that people would be so outwardly kind of mean about it.

- There's a lot of disinformation coming out of both the campaigns, Republican and Democrat.

Democrats are saying it'll disadvantage minorities.

And on the other side, Republicans are saying that liberals are trying to take away Republican votes.

- When we have open primaries, we can start electing officials that we feel more represent us and our values.

There are a lot of people who support it.

We're polling at the number we need to hit.

But in Florida, we need to hit a supermajority of 60% to pass this amendment.

- I'm confident that it'll pass.

My only concern is that, if it does pass, it's gonna face a rough road ahead as to actually getting implemented and getting certified 'cause just two weeks ago the DNC and the GOP filed a lawsuit together trying to nullify Amendment 3, even if it does pass, ignoring the voters' will.

- As you can see, more than 4 million Floridians have already voted either through early voting or vote by mail.

So, if this lawsuit succeeds, that's more than 4 million votes either for or against Amendment 3 that would be tossed out.

- If the point of an election is to hear the will of the people and the voice of the people, and if people have already voted and then you're starting to change the ballot after people have already been voted, that doesn't make much sense to me.

- It's hard to say how the court will rule, but if it's any indicator, a previous challenge to strike Amendment 3 was denied by the Florida Supreme Court earlier this year.

- Who are we targeting, right?

So, it's most targeting the low-propensity Latino voters -- so, people who are registered, but they're not actually voting regularly, right?

Talking to these voters at their doors, you know, or through the phone, whatever the case is, we want to make sure that, you know, we're identifying the issue and trying to motivate them, change their mind and to go out and vote.

- When we look at parties, when we talk about campaigns, that investment has not existed in the Latino community.

And it's kind of like this vicious cycle of, "Well, Latinos don't vote.

"Therefore, we won't invest.

Therefore, Latinos --" Right?

And so it's like in this cycle over and over.

So then it's on -- then it then falls on our own community to come and interrupt that cycle.

With Latino voters, especially, like, first-generation voters, it's like they feel a sense of duty, most of them.

We had a generation, like, our parents, who really were about really just laying a foundation for us.

They worked so, so hard so that we could thrive.

And so, like, now it's our time to step up.

A lot of them are the representatives.

They're gonna be the first ones to vote.

- For me, it's really emotional and -- I don't know why I'm crying -- but it's really emotional because, as a first-generation American, to me, I represent my entire family, not just myself or my friends, but all of the people who are here.

All of my family who are here and have DACA, I'm representing all of them because they can't go out and vote.

So I want to make sure that I'm not just voting to represent myself, but all of the people that I love and I care about, and that's why I'm going out and voting.

- Because of COVID, there was a big fight in terms of advocating for expanding the vote by mail.

Unfortunately, in Texas, that didn't happen.

The courts decided otherwise.

And so people are still gonna have to vote in person.

Every other state that we work with at Mi Familia Vota has online voter registration.

We in Texas do not.

Definitely think that the number of young Latino voters would increase massively if we had just voter ID laws in a state like Texas that allowed students to be able to vote with their student IDs, also being able to vote online, right?

To make it as accessible as possible, having same-day voter registration, right?

Currently in the state of Texas, you have to register at least 30 days before the election, right?

If people were able to register on that day and vote that same day, more people would absolutely do it.

- Today Texas governor Greg Abbott announced counties can only have one mail in ballot drop-off location.

- With just weeks until the presidential election, Texas governor Greg Abbott used his executive authority yesterday to change election rules, shutting down dozens of satellite voting locations across the Lone Star State, limiting ballot drop-off boxes to just one per county.

- So, obviously, in terms of challenges that people are facing, there was primarily, right, the fact that the governor decided that he was gonna limit the vote-by-mail drop-off locations to one location per county, right, which in a county like Dallas or Harris in Texas is incredibly challenging for folks, not just in large urban counties, right, but also in rural communities.

And so that was a big blow.

One of the other challenges that folks have been facing, of course, is the fact that, because of COVID, a lot of polling locations, like schools, like churches, that a lot of the time were polling locations, now we're finding that, you know, they're no longer polling locations because of safety reasons and all these other things.

Understandably so, right?

But that primarily has been happening in the southern sector of Dallas County, which is predominantly Black and Latino.

And so -- Right?

Low-income communities.

And so we're seeing those are the kinds of challenges that people are facing right now.

- We can't have a conversation about voter participation that doesn't address voter suppression.

[ Crowd chanting "Open the doors!"

] We have these systems that operate intentionally to deny folks access to the ballot.

In a democracy, we should be lowering barriers, not raising them.

And the problem is, in many states over the last decade, particularly after the Supreme Court whittled away at the scope of the Voting Rights Act, we've seen in state after state efforts to make it harder for people to vote.

That's exactly the wrong direction in a democracy.

- Come on.

We have six-hour lines to vote.

It's a poll tax.

People who have to work minimum-wage jobs for eight hours who have to wait six hours on line?

Are you kidding me?

In the 21st century, where I can access education on my phone, when I can learn about how to build an entire computer on YouTube, you're telling me that I have to wait six hours in line to vote?

- Tonight, for the first time, we are hearing that 911 call from Breonna Taylor's boyfriend.

- That's not acceptable.

We don't live in a world where you need to bust into a woman's home because of a "drug charge," you need to shoot her, you need to fire 22 shots, and then you need to let the woman lay on -- Like, that's not -- No.

I'm not participating in a society that dictates that it's okay.

- A third night of protests tonight in Louisville, as those in the streets continue to seek justice for Breonna Taylor.

- We went downtown with a large group of people.

- We wanted to walk with her when she was going down there.

So Stephanie and I met up with Ari.

- We were marching through the streets downtown, and we were just saying, "Say her name, Breonna Taylor."

We were just trying to get justice and saying, "This is not what we want.

This is not what the people will accept as okay."

- Louisville's mayor has put in place a curfew and Governor Andy Beshear activated the Kentucky National Guard.

- I knew I was gonna get arrested.

Like, I kind of had gone in with the mentality that I was gonna get arrested because obviously I was going out past curfew, I was doing something that was breaking the law, even if the law was not correct.

Originally it was like 600, 500 people that we were with.

But, you know, as cops do, they try to split us up, tear-gassed us, flash bombs, different things like that.

- We held hands through a good bit of this.

You know, we were close.

We ended up with a smaller group, maybe 80 people.

There was helicopters above us with a spotlight on us.

And basically we were cornered.

They had the highway blocked off.

They had every alley, street blocked off.

And then police just blitzed us.

And at that point in time, we did not run.

We put our hands up in the air.

I felt a police officer's hand on the back of my head, pushing my face into the ground.

They zip-tied us.

We all knew at that point in time we're probably going to jail.

- I was arrested.

I had three charges.

I have misdemeanor other, which was for the curfew, because they basically have no charge for curfew, so they just put it as other.

I have disorderly conduct in the second degree, and then I have unlawful assembly.

However, my white teacher, Matthew Kaufman, who was right beside me when I got arrested and we were together the whole time, only has one charge.

- I got charged with an unspecified misdemeanor.

Ari got charged with three misdemeanors.

She never left my side.

- It wasn't just that I had three charges and he had one.

It was also that he got out, like, 12 to, like, 14 hours before us.

I was held for 30 hours.

My white counterpart, who was arrested right next to me, doing the same thing that I was doing -- he has one charge and was let out at 6:00 p.m. on June 1st.

Okay, this makes sense because systems do what they're supposed to do.

As an African-American woman, I don't expect anything less.

I don't see -- I didn't expect for us to get the same amount of charges.

I didn't expect for justice to be served.

I didn't expect for it to be done in an orderly and decent way.

I guess I knew that there was -- there was a beauty to the situation.

And there was also just a privilege in being able to be arrested because George Floyd didn't get to be arrested.

He just died.

Like, Breonna Taylor didn't get to be arrested.

She just died.

So, like, I'm gonna be lucky to be able to use my voice and to be able to know that I can get arrested and still continue on with my life.

- I was actually really proud of her at that moment because I was like, "This -- She's standing up, trying to make a change."

And this is what was in her realm of what she could do, to use her voice to make that change.

- It also made me realize just how potent power can be because, really, I was doing nothing wrong.

Our Constitution states that I have the right to protest, I have the right to free speech.

They can take your rights away in an instant.

To be in direct confrontation of the system that I'm protesting, I was like, "Okay, this is why I need to fight harder.

This is why I need to continue this fight."

Most movements throughout history have been pushed and pulled forward by protesting.

[ Indistinct conversations ] - I think that with the protests around Black Lives Matter and protesting police violence, there has been a sense among young people that maybe elections and politics are beside the point.

So we have to situate in a longer struggle.

We have to think about John Lewis... - "One man, one vote" is the African cry.

It is ours, too.

It must be ours.

- ...and the sacrifices that he made and the risks he took to ensure that folks would have the right to vote and that there would be an opportunity for genuine African-American participation in our democracy.

[ Indistinct shouting ] - So it was last week in Selma, Alabama.

The most basic right of all was the right to choose your own leaders.

The history of this country, in large measure, is the history of expansion of that right to all of our people.

Many of the issues of civil rights are very complex and most difficult.

But about this there can and should be no argument.

Every American citizen must have an equal right to vote.

- People died for the right to vote.

So we have to come back to remind people of the changes that we've made and changes we still must make.

- George Floyd!

- Say his name!

- George Floyd!

- Say his name!

- George Floyd!

- If you are a young person and you are protesting what happened to George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery, you have to also think to yourself, "Well, there were protests before about Eric Garner.

"There were protests before about Philando Castile.

And we haven't made the progress we'd want."

So I think there is some disillusionment, some frustration with how government operates.

My hope is that this moment will be different.

- Never have you seen 50 states come together.

Y'all don't realize how beautiful this is.

Look around at each other.

I'm serious.

Look around at each other.

When is the last time y'all got 50 states to agree on anything?

Never!

But once they are coming together to realize the treatment of African-American and people of color is wrong, that the systems are against us!

Y'all cannot stop today!

Y'all cannot stop tomorrow!

Y'all cannot stop next week!

Y'all cannot stop the week after that!

I'm gonna need y'all to stay here every single day!

This is -- This is a revolution, y'all!

I don't think y'all understand!

Say it with me!

This is a revolution!

- This is a revolution!

- Say it with me one more time!

This is a revolution!

- Yeah - Ooh - If you believe that Black lives matter, if you are in solidarity with the protests, then you also need to be committed to real reforms around policing, real reforms around our criminal justice system, real reforms to dismantle systemic racism.

And I think that will build folks' confidence that government can be a vehicle for positive change and that voting can be a vehicle for positive change.

- In Kentucky, voters could face very long lines as the state slashed the number of polling places from 3,700 to just 170, a 95% reduction.

- Although it doesn't pack the punch that I wish it would, I'm still gonna be voting 'cause it is important.

Without the vote, I have no power.

Like, the little power that I do have is in my vote.

And that's the most direct way that I can do something with the political system.

Kentucky's a winner-takes-all state.

So, no matter if Louisville and Lexington go blue, the rest of the counties will go red, so the whole state will go red.

[ Indistinct conversations ] - I'm so nervous.

We live in a plutocracy, and that's partially because of the Electoral College, which is a super outdated way to make these kind of decisions.

That needs to be repealed.

But we also don't have a lot of options.

Are you willing to live through four more years of this, or do you want to see at least some incremental change?

Because if we get them in office, we have a way better chance of moving them through protest, through on-the-ground activism, through grassroots organizing.

That is how you hold your elected officials accountable, and you're not gonna be able to do that if you have someone in office who just doesn't hear you, who doesn't want to hear you, who doesn't think your life matters.

- When I'm voting and it's majority white people and I know that they're in a county that doesn't share the same political views as me, obviously I know that -- not the worst thing's gonna happen to me, but this is the conversation that I was having with my mom, too, like -- She, as a white woman, really didn't understand how that's the reality that I feel like all people of color -- like, just, that's inherent to us.

Like, you - If you're not in the space in which you feel safe, you have to really -- you have to be very conscious of how you're moving through the world, how you're talking, how you're presenting.

And it's something -- And especially now.

Like, it doesn't matter what you're doing.

It doesn't matter what neighborhood you're in.

These are realities that we face no matter where we go.

And so I think -- Yeah, I definitely have to be conscious of that.

And sometimes I feel like -- I feel like it adds a strength, that there's a versatility to it, that I can walk into all these different rooms and be able to, like, present some version of myself, which some people don't have to do that, and so they never learn that versatility.

But it also is sad, the feeling that you -- feeling like you have to change to fit into different spaces and to exist there.

There is a friction that comes with that situation.

And so that friction sometimes can turn out into nothing, and sometimes I've been in experiences where I've been jumped before by a group of people who, when feeling like me as an African-American took up too much space, felt like they had to do something about that.

It's normal to me, like -- Or it's become normal.

It's become part of my story.

Like, this majority of people believing that they should take up all the space but yet make you apologize for yours becomes a norm to people of color and something that they just learn to work around.

All right.

Thank you.

- Have fun.

- Thanks.

Even the idea of voting.

You're driving, you're spending your time, energy, and even, like, being here, waiting in line -- It doesn't always make sense for a person to vote.

However, I have to tell you to vote because that's the way that things get changed.

And so it pains me to know that people care, but to know that the systems make it so that it's hard for you to do that is really frustrating.

So, if we can go to the moon, if we can do this, that, and the third, then I think that we can update our political system and our voting system to where it addresses the needs of the American people.

I know change seems really difficult and really hard.

And a lot of times when we talk about systemic change, that seems really scary, too, right?

Because no one has ever dealt with a different system than what we're in right now.

And so that seems incredibly scary and like we can't be a part of it and like we have to be these absolute radicals of a system, like, we have to be crazy to go out and do these things.

You really don't.

Like, I'm very, very normal.

Happy election day.

How are we feeling about it?

How we feeling?

- Great!

Great.

Exactly.

We're feeling great.

I know we've lost faith in a system that continuously represses, murders, and turns a blind eye to us.

However, when we vote, we force the system to look at us, to listen to us, and to be responsive.

And when we vote, those in power will no longer be able to ignore what we of this country want and what we deserve.

Your voice and your vote is the chance.

You must vote, you must be civically engaged, and you must not place the future in the hands of the youth without sharing the torch with them.

This is the time to remove the chains.

This is the time to vote.

This is the time to plant new roots.

And it starts with us.

[ Cheers and applause ] - When I hear Ari speak, it reminds me why I became a teacher.

- This poem was inspired by these chains.

- These are youth that, as they are fighting for themselves and for protection of their own bodies and their own lives and their own futures, they're really fighting for all of us.

- Y'all have to vote.

Did any of y'all vote today?

- Yeah!

- Have y'all stay voted?

I think at its most base level, yes, we must do it.

Going to the voting booth and then being like, "My job is done, I'm a beautiful citizen, I did what I need to do," is that where we stop?

No, that's not.

And so no matter who is elected, we have to continue to fight and be civically engaged because this is one small battle in the continued fight that we're fighting.

- In the classroom?

[ Rhythmic clapping ] In the classroom?

[ Rhythmic clapping ] Hey, what are we doing in the classroom?

- We should both be building knowledge and preparing students for genuine engagement, right?

Think about the data that suggests only about 1 in 5 8th-graders or 12th-graders have a working understanding of the presidency, Congress, how a bill becomes a law.

So we have we haven't set the foundation, right?

- I want to take the Senate so badly.

We've had a failure in our education system to teach civics and governance.

Davis, will you turn it down a tiny bit?

Many people don't understand that the presidency isn't a mighty ruler of the land and that it still takes the House and the Senate to pass things into law.

And so I want to work to restore trust in government.

But I can't do that if there isn't something to put my own trust into.

<i>-The Biden campaign has been</i> <i>very clear-eyed about Florida.</i> <i>I don't think Biden's been</i> <i>in the state since...</i> - My life pivoted because of the 2016 presidential election, and I'm absolutely sure it will pivot again, depending on how this election goes.

- It's election night in America.

- Thanks for joining us this election night.

- Election night 2020.

– It is currently 8: 27 on election evening.

And I'm watching the polls/trying to get my homework done.

Not doing so great on that second one.

But it is what it is.

So, all of the ones with strikes through them are ones that are still in progress.

And then the color is -- Dark is no, and, I guess it's medium, is yes.

So, we've secured yeses.

But the question is, are those yeses enough to get us to the supermajority?

It'll be close.

It will be close.

- Well, I mean, $15 minimum wage could still pass in Florida even if Trump loses, and so -- - Yeah.

And open primaries.

- Mm, not a fan of those, but... - I am, now that young people aren't in parties anymore.

<i>-...has been profoundly</i> <i>radicalized.</i> - I don't know, I'm still -- I'm not sold on them.

- I mean, I would prefer to be able to convince young people to just register as Democrats, but that's not the current reality that we're living in.

And so I'd rather them have a louder voice in the primaries.

<i>-...the Dallas-Fort Worth area.</i> <i>They're talking</i> <i>about the Houston area.</i> - Who knew Texas would become a battleground state?

As difficult as the reduction of polling locations because of the pandemic and the reduction in dropboxes because of politics and stringent voter ID laws, people still came out to vote.

Young people and young people of color really came out to vote in Dallas County.

During early voting, we had about 800,000 votes, and that's a victory in and of itself.

In the entire state of Texas, we had about 1.3 million voters.

So there's definitely a lot to celebrate when we're talking about young people younger than 30 coming out to vote and working hard and it ultimately being a huge victory for Texas.

- It's 9:10 and I haven't done any economics homework.

The one on<i> New York Times</i> showing A-3 says we're at 57%.

Only -- We're in that 3%.

- Last county came in.

Amendment 3 did not pass.

- Amendment 3 involves changing Florida's primary election system.

This also needs 60% to pass, and it appears it will not, meaning Florida will remain a closed primary state, with only registered Republicans and Democrats voting... - It sucks, but it's not a surprise.

In California, they didn't pass top-two until the second try.

So maybe next time we'll get them.

But we were pretty freaking close this time around.

- If it wasn't for the parties sending out all this disinformation, Saying, "Oh, Amendment 3 is bad because," insert false claim here... - It just goes to show, like, the parties are huge.

And they have a lot of power.

And the power in elections should be given to the people, not the parties.

- Open primaries is not a panacea.

There's a lot of work to do in reforming our system.

But you can't reform the system until all voters vote.

You just can't.

<i>-In Texas tonight, the victory</i> <i>goes to Donald Trump.</i> <i>-We're approaching</i> <i>midnight on election night,</i> <i>where there are many races</i> <i>that are undecided.</i> <i>-Michigan --</i> <i>too early to call.</i> <i>Wisconsin, ditto,</i> <i>too early too call.</i> <i>-In Georgia,</i> <i>the state of the race there...</i> <i>-Two Senate runoffs</i> <i>that could determine</i> <i>the control of the US Senate.</i> <i></i> - CNN projects Biden wins Pennsylvania.

- Putting him over the 270 electoral votes he needs to become the... - 46th President of the United States.

- Joe Biden has been elected president.

- People always want to blame it on young voters, that we don't turn out as much, but I think that this year is not the year that we did that.

I think that our numbers will show that young voters turned out much higher than any other year before because we realized how important this election was, how important it was to elect officials that reflected us and our beliefs and our values.

[ Cheers and applause ] [ Whistle blowing ] - I'm a little disappointed we didn't get the supermajority we needed, but I'm happy we did get at least 57% of the vote.

This was essentially just a referendum on the status quo.

So it's refreshing to know that a large majority of Floridians want change and will appreciate any type of change to our current election system.

Planning on moving on with open primaries on the national level, working with states that are planning on running their own open primaries initiatives of 2022, whether it be semi-open, top-two, or standard open primaries.

So, working with those campaigns and getting them new support is definitely something I'm gonna be doing in future.

- My mom actually called me on the day that we found out Biden won, that Saturday morning, and goes, "Okay, are we moving to Georgia?"

And I was like, "Yeah, let's go!"

And then, uh, she was kidding, I found out.

[ Laughs ] But I wasn't.

Alright, let's go.

Ooh, election day 2021.

The turnout in 2020 in the general election was dramatically higher amongst young people than it was in 2016.

And I do give a lot of credit to the Parkland kids for sparking that initially and then to the Black Lives Matter protests all throughout the summer that got people out of their homes and they were risking their lives to demand justice for people that did not look like them always.

And I do think that that energy carried over into the election, and I am so grateful for it.

Hey, what's up?

Do they have an ID?

I'm the one they call if someone needs something special, like a voter ID.

And so we have a couple different teams that are out on the ground trying to find people who need my help.

Have you voted yet?

- I don't vote.

Sorry.

- You don't vote?

Are you not old enough?

- I stay neutral.

- No point in that.

You got to start voting.

These things affect every aspect of your life, whether you believe it or not.

Start voting for your own interests, your family's interests.

I don't even care who you vote for.

Just vote.

This runoff election is so important.

Not only will all of our policies be decided by this election.

It will tell people that they have a voice.

It will show people that their votes actually count.

And it will restore faith in government and in elected officials and in the political process, when the people that you elect are actually able to follow through with the promises that they've made to you.

- If you believe that people should be able to marry the person they love, regardless of who they are, then you need to vote.

If you believe that we ought to have a society where people have access to health care regardless of their income, then you ought to vote.

If you believe that people should be able to jog in their neighborhood, drive their car without fear of being killed in an incident of racially motivated bias, you ought to vote.

If you believe that we should have a criminal justice system that is characterized by fairness and a focus on public safety, but also public well-being, that seeks to create safety while respecting human dignity, then you ought to vote.

Voting is crucial.

It's not the only thing that's crucial to civic engagement, but participation in civic life is essential to making sure that we leave this country, this world better than we found it.

- ...so help you God?

- ...so help me God.

- Congratulations, Mr. President.

- ...so help me God.

- Alright!

[ Cheers and applause ] - The hill we climb, if only we dare it, because being American is more than a pride we inherit.

It's the past we step into and how we repair it.

We've seen a force that would shatter our nation rather than share it, would destroy our country if it meant delaying democracy.

And this effort very nearly succeeded.

But while democracy can be periodically delayed, it can never be permanently defeated.

- I mean, if they didn't think that young people's voices mattered, why would they be working so hard to suppress them?

[ Rhythmic humming ] - Major funding for "The Young Vote" film was provided by... A complete list of all our donors can be found at theyoungvotefilm.com.