Having young people sign a voting pledge, and then reminding them that they signed, increased voter turnout on college campuses in Colorado and Pennsylvania in 2016. The approach was more effective than asking youth to sign up for a reminder to vote.

The ALL IN challenge implores leaders at colleges across the United States to better incorporate civic engagement education into curriculum and use non-partisan tactics to encourage students to register to vote. The recent push is in part a response to the discouraging results published by Tufts University in 2014 - during that year's midterm election, only 12 percent of college students voted, and for the 2016 presidential election, less than half cast their vote.

Universities are using competitions, music, and prizes to encourage civic engagement among students. Efforts are aided by a national study that allows schools to see how many of their students voted either locally or absentee.

Takoma Park’s youth council may be the most powerful teen legislature in the nation. The city was the first to lower the voting age to 16 years old, so council members are not only communicating youth perspectives but also voting in local elections.

Boston’s Youth Lead the Change engages young people in municipal decision-making by putting them in charge of determining how one million dollars is spent every year. Participants learn how city government works, submit project ideas, and vote on which proposals to fund. It’s not a simulation. The money is real.

In Fairhill, a neighborhood in North Philadelphia, voter turnout was a mere 12% in one recent election. Fairhill Neighbors, a coalition of neighborhood groups, is seeking to combat lower turnout rates with a personal engagement program. “Voting Champions” are community members who will work to register voters, drive them to polls, and generate excitement about voting, with the hopes of transforming civic participation in their area.

In the U.S. the electorate skews white, wealthy, and old because such demographics are more likely to vote. Creating mandatory voting laws would increase voter turnout and thus increase voting equity.

During West Virginia’s primary elections, a pilot program used blockchain technology and a mobile app to record votes. The aim was to improve election security and make it easier for Americans abroad to cast their ballots. Critics say that the program left many security issues unsolved.

Without an address emergency response, voting rights, legal aid, bank accounts and more are difficult if not impossible to get. what3words is a new startup that has given every 3-meter-squares in the world a 3-word address in the hopes of creating a new global addressing system.

Voting is easy when a ballot arrives in your mailbox. Vote-at-home increases turnout in all precincts and elections in which it’s available. It significantly outperforms all combinations of other innovations such as absentee ballots, early in-person voting, same-day registration and election-day registration.