The Voter Journey Map - 2024 Innovative Applied Civics for Teachers and Students
The Voter Journey Map is a Voting Adventure for Students - US.VOTE’s new interactive how-to-vote tool, the Voter Journey Map (VJM), is popular with students. Educators and parents are embracing the downloadable instructional guide to teach teenagers about American democracy.
High school social studies students are taught that they should vote. But are they taught how to vote?
Teenagers may also learn that “barriers” deter voting. However, young citizens may struggle to relate to the experiences that lead to low turnout.
“I thought a barrier to voting meant that people are physically blocked when they tried to vote,” said Emma, a high school sophomore from Dallas, Texas. “I learned a lot from US.VOTE and also liked the factoids that came up on the voter journey.”
US.VOTE’s new Voter Journey Map leads students down an interactive pathway to the ballot box.
The personalized experience sets them up to vote and to understand the hurdles some face along the way including navigating:
- Voter eligibility laws
- Identification requirements
- Registration rules
- Methods of voting
The individualized design of the Voter Journey Map engages young minds and holds their attention. Students add the steps they themselves need to know to map out a plan to vote in theory or in real life.
“I’m embarrassed to say that I thought [voter] registration meant registering for the draft like they had to do for the Vietnam War,” confessed Jordan, a high school junior from Chicago. “My social studies teacher is going to love this. Especially how you can download the plan you make and keep it for when the time comes.”
The Voter Journey Map is a welcome resource for parents and educators alike for the reasons that it:
- Is nonpartisan;
- Does not collect or share your private information; and
- Is aligned with College Board standards
In particular, Advanced Placement (AP) United States Government and Politics students will learn about curricular topics from “Unit 5 Political Participation” including:
- Voting processes and policies;
- Structural barriers that affect voter turnout;
- How state election laws vary in our federal system; and
- Voter demographics.
AP US Government and Politics Teachers can employ the Voter Journey Map to address course essential questions such as:
- Why do some people choose to participate in government while others do not?
- How does who you are affect whether you participate or not?
US.VOTE has created a companion downloadable Voter Journey Map instructional guide for government, politics, and civics courses to use in the classroom or as a homework assignment.
Lesson options include opportunities for students to interact with the how-to-vote tool then:
- Compare and contrast two states’ election laws;
- Engage in experiential learning by setting up community members to vote;
- Make policy recommendations in an editorial;
- Create voting guides for underrepresented voters;
- Apply their Voter Journey Map experience to College Board modeled Concept Application questions; and
- Role play a voter with a situational barrier.
See the Voter Journey Map Lesson Plan
With the popular role play option, educators may assign a different situational demographic for each student in the class as a springboard for high engagement learning. In these roles, students will discover the challenges voters face including the:
- scarcity of polling locations in some rural areas;
- difficulty of finding time to vote if one works during polling hours;
- paucity of voting options in some states without early voting or no-excuse mail-in voting;
- tedious process of acquiring acceptable Voter ID in some states; and
- strict witness, signature and notary requirements for some of the nation’s most vulnerable voters.
Students will also be surprised to learn that some citizens are eligible to vote that they may not have realized could cast ballots including American citizens who:
- have never lived in the U.S.
- move overseas and don’t keep a home in the U.S.
- are deployed in a military conflict
- do not have a permanent address
- are hospitalized
- are dual citizens
Meet US.VOTE and the You're Eligible Situations (YES) Library
Students can extend their learning through the voter story library also available at US.VOTE. Each voter journey in the You’re Eligible Situations - YES Campaign is real and inspiring. These voting champions show how to overcome barriers that students may discover in the Voter Journey Map. YES stories further humanize the voting experience to help students relate to democratic concepts which had previously been abstract to them.
“I would encourage students to use the VJM and YES as their go-to resources for their Applied Civics project. I absolutely love how it provides an authentic learning experience,” said Sara Kempner who taught AP US Government and Politics for more than a decade in Connecticut. “The VJM will guide new young voters to the ballot box while simultaneously helping them understand the variables that may reduce voter turnout.”
Parents are using the how-to-vote tool as a learning opportunity as well.
Joseph Miller, father of two teenagers from New York said, “Taking my kids into the voting booth with me wasn’t enough over the years. I want to make sure they follow through and vote. I’m going to sit down with my kids and map out the process together. Kind of like making an actual budget with them instead of just telling them to save money. It’s all about the details and the planning.”
