As early voting nears in Georgia, all eyes are on whether young voters will turn out

The Atlanta Dream had a lot riding on Tuesday's game. The WNBA team had to defeat the Chicago Sky for a shot at the playoffs.

Kayla Jones, a 22-year-old dancer with the Dream's Hype Squad was there, and as attendees trickled into the arena, something caught her eye.

"I was dancing, and I looked to my left, and I was like, oh my gosh, there's the voting station!" she said.

After the Dream pulled off the much-needed win, Jones went over. She's from California, but as a nursing student in Atlanta, she asked the voter organizers who were helping attendees register and check their information if she could register in Georgia this year.

"I just don't think California needs my vote as much as Georgia does," she told NPR.

Jones is supporting Vice President Harris this fall. To her, the act of voting gives her a needed voice, which at times can feel difficult.

"Especially as a Black woman in this world, there's times where I'll say, like, I don't feel good, or I have pain, and sometimes doctors won't hear me. Or if I'm feeling unsafe and a police officer may not understand that or care," she explained. "So my vote is something that I can say, I voted, and this was my part in making sure that I have a say in what happens in the day-to-day in society."

Jones still is not sure if ultimately she'll vote in California or go through the process of updating her permanent address in order to vote in Georgia. Regardless, the nursing student and dancer is part of a growing and powerful voting bloc. Gen Z and millennial voters — voters under 43 — are poised to make up nearly half the eligible voting population this fall.

But it remains uncertain if young voters — who historically do not turn out as highly as older generations — will show up this year. Especially in crucial swing states like Georgia, which President Biden flipped in 2020 by less than half a percentage point, and voting this year begins on Oct. 15.

A shift in mood for younger voters

Standing near the registration tables at the Dream game was Beth Lynk, the executive director of When We All Vote, the nonpartisan group that organized the event.

"When we're checking registration, we're checking with the promise of following up," Lynk said. "The process doesn't end tonight."

When We All Vote was created by former first lady Michelle Obama in 2018 and often collaborates with celebrities and national brands on voting initiatives around the country.

"One of the things that we pride ourselves on is on, yes, getting young people registered to vote — we're going to get that number as high as we possibly can — and then also following up with them to say, did you make a plan to vote? How are you voting?" she explained.

The group focuses on getting young voters and voters of color civically engaged. Both groups are key to the Democratic party's base.

Voters under 30, notably younger Black, Latino and Asian American voters , handily supported President Biden in 2020. This year, many grew disappointed with their options as they stared down another rematch between Biden and former President Donald Trump.

But that may be shifting. During the week Biden dropped out and Harris took over the Democratic ticket, there were noticeable spikes in voter registrations among young people, particularly young women and young women of color.

Tom Bonier is a Democratic strategist with the firm Target Smart, which recently published a database of state-by-state data detailing these new registrations. Though it's unclear who these new voters will support this fall, Bonier argued the spike is a clear proxy for youth enthusiasm for Harris.

"That someone is actually taking the time and energy to go out and register to vote, it's a sign that they are engaged," he said. "When you see it concentrated among a certain group. It generally is indicative of that group ... being much more engaged."

Many have still not registered

That said, this recent bump in registrations has yet to cancel out dips from earlier in the campaign season. It remains unclear if that overall number can surpass or rival 2020 numbers by Election Day.

"I think it's safe to say the deficit in new voter registration this year, compared to four years earlier, was largest among younger voters," Bonier said. "It's an open question to what extent that gap will be made up. I believe it will."

As of Sept. 5, more than 45,000 people under 30 in Georgia have registered to vote since late July, according to data compiled by Target Smart from the Georgia Secretary of State.

However, some have yet to take that step.

On Thursday afternoon, Gabriella Nicolosi sat at a table outside in downtown Atlanta. The 18-year-old is a student at Georgia State University.

"I'm for sure voting in this election," she said, adding, "I do need to register. So I got to get on to that."

Top of mind for her right now is protecting reproductive healthcare. She described feeling frightened after hearing that a 28-year-old woman had died at a hospital in the suburbs of Atlanta last month because she wasn't able to receive a timely emergency abortion procedure.

"That's really been rallying a lot of girls in Atlanta," Nicolosi said. "I think it's scary for a lot of kids and girls my age because ... we don't know what's going on next."

Nicolosi plans to back Harris this fall, but until recently, she wasn't sure she would vote at all.

"With Biden and Trump, it was just, I never felt moved or seen or represented," she said. "When Kamala [Harris] just came in it was like, oh, you know, maybe it does have to do with me."

While Nicolosi has made up her mind, some of her classmates haven't.

"I got to research more on my own, especially since I'm more on my own now," explained 21-year-old GSU student Julio Almanza. "Are the Democrats really that bad this time around? Or is it just that's how I grew up thinking?"

Almanza voted for Trump in 2020, in part because of veterans issues as his mom served in the military. This time, he said both sides are on the table, and he's open to learning more about Harris.

"I feel like that would be cool to have a female president," he said. "I guess she's done a lot of political things, but I just haven't seen them ... Maybe she has ideas similar to mine."