Signs pointing to increased turnout for young voters in Arizona

PHOENIX — Early voting totals suggest Arizona is expected to see an increase in turnout among young voters.

Of those who turned in their early ballots, 18- to 34-year-olds made up the largest number of first-time voters, according to the latest numbers from the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office.

“Young people are fired up – they are excited,” said Jalakoi Solomon, state director for NextGen Arizona. “They are already voting, and they will continue to vote on Election Day.”

This year, her group was busy registering young voters. They held voter registration events at college campuses and places where young voters are known to congregate. They also went door to door, made phone calls, sent out texts and used social media to reach young voters.

Solomon said they did all that to ensure “there was no excuse – no reason why any young person in the state of Arizona wouldn’t know that they needed to register to vote and have all the information they need to actually do that.”

She said education and health care are among the top issues driving young people to register and vote this year.

An analysis by TargetSmart, a Democratic political analytics firm, found voter registration in Arizona among young voters ages 18 to 29 increased by 7.6 percent from the 2014 primary to the 2018 primary.

Solomon said her group played a big role in that increase. They registered nearly 22,000 young voters this year.

Garrett Archer, senior analyst at the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office, said about 200,000 voters ages 18-34 turned in early ballots prior to Tuesday’s election.

“Young people, millennial voters have experienced an increase in turnout in this election,” he said, adding it’s still too early to tell if young voters will have a record turnout.

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