Voter participation in America has been steadily declining for the last 50 years and the 2014 midterm election marked the lowest point since the 1940s, but advances in social technologies offer promising opportunities to reverse this trend. At Brigade, we’re hard at work building tools that will allow people to declare their beliefs, organize with like-minded individuals, and take action to shape the policies and elections that affect their lives locally and nationally.
But as we seek to do that online, it’s important to orchestrate offline conversations about issues that matter. Throughout the 2016 campaign cycle, our company wants to help facilitate that dialogue and offer a forum for political leaders of all persuasions to engage directly with citizens. To kick things off, our CEO Matt Mahan will participate in a conversation with Republican presidential hopeful Rand Paul and the San Francisco Chronicle’s Carla Marinucci on Saturday, May 9 at an event sponsored by technology and policy think tank Lincoln Labs.
“Disrupting Democracy: Growing a New Generation of Voter Engagement” will address strategies and tools that can increase voter and overall civic engagement among Americans, particularly millennials — an attractive target for Republicans and Democrats alike. “Millennials are better informed, better connected and more exposed to news,” in a wider variety and deeper form, than their parents ever were, Mahan told the Chronicle in an article published Thursday. But there’s “a skepticism or even a cynicism problem,” he said, with many millennials doubting that “their vote is relevant or impactful.”
Click here to learn more about Saturday’s sold-out event and follow along on social media at #DisruptingDemocracy. Click here to read Marinucci’s full story, Political Parties Targeting Elusive Voters — Millennials.
