On Oct. 15, 2024, a text message with some misleading wording about out-of-state voting eligibility was sent out to people in Wisconsin. The message was seemingly targeted at young voters, as young people associated with the University of Wisconsin and the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin reported receiving the text. In the days following, many have called out the message for being intimidating and contributing to misinformation about the upcoming election.
To be clear, out-of-state college students are actually eligible to vote in Wisconsin, as long as they are properly registered. Still, for those who aren’t crystal-clear on their voting rights, the text message could be enough to deter them from voting, out of fear that they’d get into trouble if they accidentally voted illegally.Â
In response to this incident, a Gen Z-led organization called Voters of Tomorrow is taking action to ensure voters in Wisconsin know their rights and help them get to the polls. On Oct. 22, the org announced its intent to send more than 350,000 text messages to young voters in Wisconsin, clarifying Wisconsin voting laws and helping them make a plan to vote.Â
“As a Gen Z-led group, we firmly believe that our votes should be earned, not silenced,” Wisconsin’s Voters of Tomorrow Lead, Mark Putman, said in a press release about the new voting information effort. Putman also called out the (currently unknown) entity behind the Oct. 15 text, saying, “As a campaign, if your only path to victory counts on young voters staying home, you’ve already lost.”
Young voters have proven to be vital for elections, especially in recent years. In 2022, Gen Z voted at a higher rate than any generation before them in one of the first midterm elections that this generation was eligible to vote in. This year, the youth vote could be so powerful as to sway Wisconsin, a crucial swing state that could go either red or blue.Â
“Voters of Tomorrow will not stand for any attempt at undermining young voters, because our futures are at stake in this election,” Putnam added in the press release.Â
This effort by Voters of Tomorrow is timely because it’s happening not only in wake of the text from the week prior, but also because early voting also began in Wisconsin on the same day that the effort was announced, Oct. 22.Â
According to the Voters of Tomorrow website, in 2022, the organization contacted young voters over eight million times during the midterm elections, including the crucial Georgia Senate runoff. In 2024, the org has already made over 10 million direct voter contacts. The group has no plans to slow down, and hopes to reach as many voters as possible by Election Day on Nov. 5.