NYRA Launches Voting Age Video Project

Will Interview Youth about the Right to Vote

Washington, DC – November 10, 2008: Thanks to a grant from the Sunlight Foundation and Mobilize.org, the National Youth Rights Association is launching a project to survey high school students around the country about the right to vote and lowering the voting age to 16.

Cameras will be distributed to NYRA chapter leaders throughout the country who will reach out to students at their high schools to ask a simple question: “Do you want to vote?” The interviews will be conducted over the next year and made available online on YouthRights.org and YouTube.

“The reason many people today feel that young people are apathetic and don't want to be involved in the process is that nobody has really given them the opportunity to express this interest.” said Stefan Muller, Vice-President of the National Youth Rights Association, “If we ask young people what they think and are willing to listen, they'll have something to say.”

NYRA hopes to conduct dozens of interviews from a diverse cross-section of the nation’s youth that is reflective of the growing popular support for lowering the voting age nationwide.

About NYRA:

The National Youth Rights Association is a national, youth-led organization whose mission is to promote awareness of the legal and civil rights of young people in the United States. NYRA is based in Washington, DC and was founded in 1998. NYRA has nearly 8,000 members and has been featured on CNN, Fox News, PBS, and in the New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, LA Times, Chicago Tribune, Boston Globe, and numerous other publications.

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