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universities center for information and research on civic learning and engagement. she is here to discuss youth voting and help millennials could impact the 20 midterms. morning, abby. guest: good morning to you. host: can you start off by reminding us what your center, what is -- which is known by the acronym circle, what the mission is? caller: circle is part of the civic life at tufts university. it is used to create more access and more opportunity for young people regardless of where they live in the united states, to have a part in a role in -- and a role in u.s. democracy. host: i want to bring up some of the research you guys have been

doing at circle. you recently released new data on voter registration. it shows 18 states have already surpassed their total voter registration for people ages 18 through 24. since the last midterm in 2018, including battlegrounds places like kansas, nevada and north carolina, we are showing the chart now. states on the right shows the youth voter registration, the difference in those who register has gone up. in the red states, it has gone down a little bit as far as the percentage of the overall voting population. tell us what factors are driving these voter registrations. particularly in states where we see it going up. guest: absolutely. this is another election cycle, where we are seeing young people really showing their political

power and the potential that they have to lead on issues as well as lead in influencing elections. you mentioned the 2018 election. there is important context. the 2018 election was historic for one significant reason. gen z, roughly 18 to 24, aging into the electorate at that time with some of the younger millennials, come out at a rate that was higher than any young generation did in midterm elections. they voted at a rate higher than boomers did in the 1970's and gen x did in the 1980's. in our research, this was largely because of young people leading. when we look at this election cycle, we see that, as you said, there are 18 states out of

roughly 42 that we have data for where youth registration is already above the november of 2018 levels. they are above a level at a historic election cycle. that is a great deal. younger people, whether or not they are saying they will vote is roughly at the same place as it was prior to the 2018 election. this includes places like michigan, kansas and about a, where according to our research, -- and nevada, where according to our research, -- there is one caveat. we were talking about 18 to 24-year-olds. one thing we also look at is 18 to 19-year-olds. these states also have higher rates of youth voter turnout compared to november of 2018

for 18 to 19-year-olds. this is significant because 18 and 19-year-olds have aged into the electorate since the 2020 election. there are 8.3 million of them and half of them are people of color. this is a group that usually gets ignored by campaigns and ignored by folks who are looking at partisan ends. the fact that these states have mobilized to register these young people at higher rates than 2018 is significant. and it is one type of effort focused on young people who just aged into the electorate or people who preregistered to vote to prepare young people so that when they turn 18, they are ready to go. we believe that will create a robust, inclusive democracy and emerging multiracial society, which is what we are working on.

host: you mentioned, i said millennials in my intro but we are talking about gen z, younger than the millennials, in the 18-24 bracket. guest: this election cycle, we are. host: we want to get to some of your calls. if you are in the gen z population, 18-24, we want you to call at (202) 748-8000. if you are ages 25 to 64, you can call us at (202) 748-8001. if you are 65 plus, your number is (202) 748-8002. again, go ahead and start calling those numbers now. abby, i wanted to ask you another question about this chart of voter registration for

that age 18 to 24 bracket. what states are a hind in voter registration for young people? what -- are behind in voter registration for young people and what factors into that? are you expecting a turnaround? guest: that is a great question. there is so much potential in all of the states, especially some of the states that were greatly below 2018. in states where there is same-day registration or a later registration deadline, there is still so much time for young people to be able to register and cast a ballot. one of the things that we have done is looked at, and i have mentioned, where young people are particularly -- among those states, there are several states where the voter

registration numbers are just below the november 2018 numbers, and that includes places like ohio. it also includes, i'm trying to bring up my data, it includes laces like arizona. and georgia. for example, florida and pennsylvania. those are some really significant, politically, states where young people have just not gotten information and support yet. in some of these places, there have been some confusing politics changes. that is a significant factor in getting more and more diverse young people to register to vote. because, if you are new to the system and the system is changing, you need more support in navigating that system. this is one of the things we keep talking about in our circle growing voters framework, which we released in june. that is talking about how do we

help young people? how do we support young people? to be part of our democracy, even if they haven't been part of an environment or a household that talks about elections and voting. those are the young people who we need to focus on. unfortunately, some of the political incentives related to elections are those of the young people we are least likely to be focused on. places like libraries and youth organizations can reach out and play a huge role in increasing these numbers. the other place that can have a significant impact in effecting some of these numbers are schools. nonpartisan education in schools, combining things like rotor -- voter registration is something we are committed to figuring out how more schools can do that, regardless of their zip code and what state they are in. but that is one way to reach young people before they reach

18 and help them and support them with learning, skills and knowledge that they need in order to be robust, lifelong democratic actors. host: let's go to the phones. our first color is marked in scottsdale. -- mark in scottsdale. what was your question or,? caller: hello, c-span. thanks for having me on. the youth vote is usually crazy and democratic. just from my own experience. as you grow older, you tend to become more conservative. you tended to become more conservative once you start having children and having a

mortgage payment to make, and you are paying more taxes. so it is easy to be a liberal activist or just an activist when you are young. but it gets harder to think that way as you get older. excuse me. i think that has been proved by the data. it is not similar to a generational thing, it is more like, as you grow older -- host: respond to that. have you looked at patterns as young voters grow older, do you think that plays out? guest: thanks so much for calling in with this set of comments, this is something we hear quite a bit. we were talking about the millennial generation before.

the millennials have really shifted this dynamic a little bit. millennials that were in 18-20 nine age bracket when president obama was first elected, and when he was reelected. we have seen that generation actually stay pretty democratic. not quite followed the trends that mark was talking about. so, i think we are in a moment where a lot of different things have happened when millennials and gen z have come of age, and those things have a pretty profound mark on people's political ideology and worldview as they age. so, i think we are going to see some different things, with respect to aging and political ideology dynamic that mark is talking about. i also would be remiss if i did not share, young people start

working at a young age. a significant group of young people are working while they're putting themselves through school, while they are putting themselves through school and have children and taking care of family members. so, the experiences young people under 30 have are profoundly important to figuring out solutions to some of the problems that have been plaguing our communities. young people are the answer. we have seen a lot of this leadership and trying to make the democracy stronger and make our community stronger, and we absolutely need to invest in that first leadership, announcer: c-span's campaign 2022 coverage of the midterm elections continues in october with live debates on c-span including the arizona senate debate between senator mark kelly and challengers blake

masters and mark victor on october 6, in wisconsin on october 7 incumbent senator ron johnson debates the democratic challenger, georgia congresswoman marjorie taylor greene and her democratic challenger marcus flowers debate on october 16, and october 17 republican governor brian kemp take some political activists stacey abrams. i do not miss a single election moment on c-span and take us with you on the go with c-span, our free mobile video app. visit c-span.org/campaign2022. announcer:announcer: c-span, your unfiltered view of politics. the three candidates vying to become organ's next governor went for a debate recently. they participated in the event hosted by ktvz tv at the oregon

state university cascades campus. watch later today on c-span, online anytime at c-span.org, or with cspan now app, our free video app. announcer: live thursday night debate between arizona democratic senator mark kelly, republican challenger lake masters and libertarian challenger mark victor hosted by arizona pbs and the arizona clean elections commission at 9:00 p.m. eastern on c-span, cspan now app, or online at c-span.org. announcer: north korea's ambassador to the united nations spoke to other world leaders at the u.n. general assembly in new york city. the speech is about 20 minutes. the speech is about 20 minutes.