Remember all those colourful assets that flooded your social media between 14 – 20 September? This mysterious yet educational video? This website?
If you’re one of the 5,920 young people who registered to vote during LVRW 2020, you probably will!
The Greater London Authority released the report on LVRW 2020 this week, and the results are fantastic – even if we do say so ourselves.
Cabinet Office statistics revealed that 27,120 people registered to vote in London during LVRW, a rise of 14% on the previous week.
But better still, 5,920 of those newly registered in London were aged between 16 and 25, which meant 23% more young people registered to vote during the week of our campaign than in the week before!
As a social enterprise dedicated to promoting political and media literacy amongst young people, this is music to our ears and has opened our eyes to just how powerful social media can be as a tool for enabling democratic engagement.
In fact, LVRW had an online reach of 2.6 million, creating almost 65,000 unique engagements with LVRW 2020 posts and over 150,000 views for the LVRW 2020 #NoVoteNoVoice video. This shows that not only did we bring voter registration to people’s screens but we brought it to their attention!
We’re also proud of the fact that following the campaign’s official launch with the support of over 100 civil society organisations, the week itself saw the organic support of a further 100 civil society organisations and influencers. The diversity of these many supporters was no doubt instrumental in ensuring that we reached the most under-represented groups we were trying to target with our campaign: BAME communities, under-25s and private renters.
But of course, the haters were always gonna hate. The most popular asset, which depicted Martin Luther King, also attracted the most racist comments and trolls. Evidently their ignorance didn’t convince the thousands of Londoners who decided to engage with our democracy through voter registration anyway.
If you were one of the people who registered to vote this September, thank you for being an active part of our democracy and taking that crucial step to getting your voice heard.
We’re so proud of what we achieved and are excited about the precedent this sets for future campaigns, not least for the next General Election.
To read the full report, visit the LVRW Evaluation Report page here and click on the 2020 link to view the document via Google Drive.
