The 2024 #StudentVote Messaging Toolkit is a comprehensive resource developed by the Students Learn Students Vote Coalition’s Communications Working Group to address the complex challenges facing student voter engagement in 2024. This toolkit recognizes that while the #StudentVote movement has achieved historic success with 66% turnout in the 2020 presidential election, campus leaders now face new challenges including increased political polarization, widespread disillusionment among young voters, persistent barriers to voting, and the reality that previously successful messaging strategies may not be as effective in the current political climate.
The toolkit provides evidence-based messaging strategies grounded in research from organizations like CIRCLE (Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement) and practical insights from campus professionals across the country. It offers specific guidance for combating disillusionment by acknowledging student concerns, focusing on local impact where change is more immediate and tangible, and helping students navigate the voting process with confidence.
Key sections include comprehensive strategies for addressing the root causes of student disillusionment (inadequate civic education, logistical barriers, voter suppression, pessimism with electoral systems, decreasing trust in institutions, lack of representation, and frustration with political parties), messaging tactics for emphasizing local elections where student votes have maximum impact, guidance for maintaining nonpartisan approaches while navigating polarized environments, and frameworks for connecting academic majors and student interests to ballot issues.
The resource emphasizes that college students are not just the future of democracy but a significant part of its present, with the power to make immediate differences especially at the local level where margins are often razor-thin and policies directly affect campus communities.