Less than a week from Election Day, organizations across Florida are trying to get as many people to vote as possible.
The focus now is on young people.
If you have visited any college campus in South Florida, you might have seen a group of college students they are known as Engage Miami.
“We as an organization are hyper-focused on millennial and gen-z’s,” shared Nora Viñas.
Viñas is the Deputy Executive Director of Engage Miami. She explained that their group includes 50 young adults who are eager for civic and voter engagement.
“During midterm elections, there isn’t high turnout overall across age groups,” she shares. “So it’s really important for us this year to really get out the vote, and that the issues they care about are on the ballot.”
According to a Bloomberg Report, in our most recent midterms in 2018, there was record-breaking voter turnout among those 18 through 24. Turnout has more than doubled since 2014, and Viñas is hoping that number only increases.
“We know that young people are really important in shaping our future, and for us, we know that young people don’t have all the information they need to make informed and educated decisions at the ballot box,” stated Viñas.
It is why this group works years round, going into classrooms at colleges across Miami Dade and Broward counties. They share civics 101 and why it matters. They also do outreach events, like the one they held last Friday at Florida International University.
“I got to personally talk to some folks and encourage them to go vote, because it was right there, and they could do it in between classes, and they did,” recalls Viñas.
She furthered, “We also came into contact with a lot of young people who have mixed feelings about voting, because they don’t think that their vote matters, so it’s definitely both sides of the coin.”
She hopes that by engaging with others, Engage Miami can help them understand that local government is important regardless of age.
