Press Kit

New Voters is a national student-led nonprofit registering first-time high school voters

About Us

New Voters is a student-run 501(c)(3) organization working to expand the youth vote by organizing voter registration drives in high schools across America. By empowering first-time voters to run successful drives at their schools and connecting them with experienced college mentors, New Voters aim to build a broader culture of civic engagement that starts in high school.

The New Voters Solution

The main mission of New Voters is to support and empower high school student-leaders to host successful non-partisan voter registration drives at their schools. We work towards this goal in three main ways:

1) New Voters’ state-specific toolkits teach student leaders how to run their first drive. Each New Voters toolkit contains state-specific information regarding registration deadlines, voter qualification requirements, and general voting tips, making it easy for anyone to run a drive, regardless of their voter registration experience.

2) New Voters’ group training calls connect and inspire student leaders. Our national calls provide first-hand experience with what it looks and feels like to run a drive. Connecting student leaders across New Voters’ national network, these touchpoints provide a space for young people to share their ideas and experience to build a broader culture of civic engagement in their communities.

3) New Voters’ college mentorship program motivates and inspires the next generation of student leaders. New Voters pairs high school students with college mentors throughout their voter registration timeline, and these mentors provide support, guidance, and access to our national network of resources and student leaders.

Since its inception in 2017, New Voters has registered 20,152 young voters, established chapters at 266 high schools across the nation, reached 52 universities, and trained over 115 college mentors. Our rapidly-expanding network of passionate college mentors and excited high schoolers have set the bar even higher for 2020 — aiming to register 100,000 new voters by the election!

New Voters' Impact

New Voters hasn’t just registered thousands of first-time high school voters in the past 3 years — it’s created a national network of student leaders eager to share their passion for civic engagement with their local communities.

“After the 2016 election, I saw so many of my young classmates discouraged that their voices were not heard. It felt like a wake-up call and I immediately began brainstorming my idea for New Voters. I wanted to change the narrative surrounding youth voting, and I wanted my peers to show up. Now more than ever, young people are ready to be heard. The main role of New Voters today is to make sure this happens.” - Jahnavi Rhao (Founder and President of New Voters)

"By giving me, and many other students, the resources to run successful voter registration drives, New Voters has inspired youth to take action and have their voices heard. I am so grateful to New Voters for not only making sure that every youth voice is heard, but also that every voice is counted.” - Victoria Dinov (Mentee and New Voters Communications Intern)