Greens launch youth voter turnout drive

Six organizations are teaming up to visit college campuses and encourage young people to vote in the name of environmental protection.

The groups, led by the Environmental Defense Fund’s (EDF) Defend Our Future campaign, are backing a Campus Consciousness Tour in eight college towns.

{mosads}The nonpartisan effort is meant to inspire young voters to participate in the midterm elections and vote for candidates who support policies to mitigate climate change.

“Climate change is already affecting millennials’ everyday lives,” said Alicia Kolar Prevost, who is leading the campaign for EDF, in a Wednesday statement.

“Through this joint effort, they’ll have a chance to take action on climate change, and take charge of their future, through their everyday lives,” she said.

OurTime.org, Protect Our Winters, Reverb, Rock the Vote and Voto Latino have also signed on.

Each campus event will feature a concert by Icona Pop, and organizers will register students and ask them to pledge to vote.

“If meaningful action on climate change is to take place, young people need to get organized and show elected officials they want action now,” Chris Steinkamp, executive director of Protect Our Winters, said in the statement.

EDF’s voter turnout effort started in August in Colorado, where organizers are still at major colleges with a goal of getting 100,000 pledges to vote. Rep. Cory Gardner (R) is trying to take Sen. Mark Udall’s (D) seat in that Senate race.