Bridgewater, Va. – The Young Democrats are reaching out to voters to increase voter registration in the lead-up to the 2020 election, while still keeping safe during the pandemic. 

The Young Democrats are working with both NextGen Virginia, a youth-oriented voter advocacy group, and the Harrisonburg Democrats to engage with voters this year. 

In a typical election year, voter outreach would involve going door-to-door and canvassing potential voters. However, because of the pandemic, the Young Democrats’ voter outreach strategy has been reserved to phone-banking. 

President of the Young Democrats Grace Kellar thinks the pandemic provides a unique challenge because “it makes people want to get less involved because of how scary the pandemic is.”

While only being able to contact voters over the phone may not be ideal, Kellar believes that it has an upside. “I think people feel a little bit more comfortable with receiving a message from a real person on a phone,” said Kellar.