A group of California students is using the power of peer pressure to bring young people to the polls.
In anticipation of November’s midterms, the students behind Rise California— a nonprofit advocating for free tuition at the state’s public universities — created a digital platform to get out the vote. The site, called VoteCrew, relies on the ability of social pressure to influence behavior. In this case, that behavior is voting.
“There’s something about building community and doing something with your friends that’s really really powerful,” said Max Lubin, who is working toward a master’s degree in public policy at UC Berkeley and founded Rise California.
“It’s about taking this thing that we’ve sort of historically thought of being a solemn and solitary endeavor,” and making it social, Lubin said.
With VoteCrew, the notion of a more social voting experience takes the form of a peer-to-peer messaging platform. By texting an activation code or signing up online, eligible voters join individual “crews” and receive text message reminders to register to vote and to cast a ballot on or before election day.
The full article is available on the San Francisco Chronicle. Please click here to read.
