ABC special 'Facing the Facts' highlights push for Gen Z to vote in November

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- With less than three weeks until Election Day, there's a continued push to reach voters, especially younger ones.

That topic is the focus of one story featured in the new ABC streaming series, 'Facing the Facts.'

With his curly brown hair and bright smile, people sometimes look at Ben Binday and assume he's younger than he really is.

"I'm 20 years old," said the college student.

Even though he looks young, he's ready to take on an age-old rite of passage: voting.

"That's something I'm super excited about," Binday said.

Casting his ballot in the presidential election will be a first for him and others who are Gen Z.

"I think politicians oftentimes don't worry that much about the perspectives of young votes simply because people my age don't turn out to vote that much and often times our votes are taken for granted," he said.

Organizations are increasingly focused on Gen Z -- which ranges from age 12 to 27 -- and the 6abc data team found that 40.8 million members of Gen Z will be eligible to vote in the November election.

"The best messenger to get a member of Gen Z out to vote is another member of Gen Z," said Marianna Pecora who serves as Communications Director for Voters of Tomorrow.

The organization is led entirely by members of Gen Z. Voters of Tomorrow use an approach they call relational organizing to reach Gen Z voters.

"Those are kids that are on their campus, in their communities, talking to the voters," said Pecora.

Voters of Tomorrow is based in Washington, D.C. with chapters in 23 states.

"In 2022, we were able to contact young people 8.5 million times," Pecora said.

In Liberty Square, the heart of Philadelphia, Leonzo Vargas spoke about his organization's efforts to engage Gen Z voters.

Those efforts don't rely on the old-school approach of sending out volunteers with clipboards to get people registered to vote as they pass by on city streets.

"The whole clipboard, highlighter jacket isn't getting much engagement," said Vargas who is the Cultural Ambassador for the non-partisan, nonprofit group ShowUpStrong24.

The organization merges voter registration with music, arts, and culture. They say Gen Z wants to know what they get out of it, so ShowUpStrong provides resources while registering new voters.

"Like a back-to-school shopping spree, like a rent giveaway," said Vargas. "We want you to participate but we also want to meet you like let's support you as well."

"I think there's a real misunderstanding of this generation and how we're engaging with politics," said Pecora.

A lot of that engagement is happening on non-traditional platforms.

"Places like YouTube, like TikTok, like Instagram," said Pecora.

"My generation has so much information at our fingertips," said Binday.

"But we're also the generation that's grown up with the internet and knows how to spot the stuff that's real and the stuff that's not," said Pecora.

"We're seeing more than ever before what's happening culturally and civically," said Vargas.

They say that created a more empathetic generation that identifies with policy over party.

"There's sort of a consensus that young people don't fully align themselves with their party," said Pecora, "nor do they really care about a party label. They care about the issues."

"Left, right, up, down, northwest, southwest, wherever your party lies, undecided -- what we're seeing is everyone has an issue they want to solve," said Vargas.

"I'm really interested in having my voice heard and the voices heard of other people who are like me and my age," said Binday, who now works as the Press Secretary for Show up Strong 24.

He hopes his fellow Gen Z'ers are also ready to claim their place in politics.

"People in my generation have so much power if we turn out to the polls and make our voices heard," he said.

You can watch the full Facing the Facts special here.