On October 6th, PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs, in partnership with the Poynter Institute's MediaWise, hosted “Face the Facts: Election 2020 Youth Town Hall.” The virtual event was produced to engage students and first-time voters on how to be prepared and better informed ahead of the November elections. The livestream included different segments featuring young people that have been clipped for educators to use separately or all together to initiate conversations about civics, elections and the role of young voters in a democratic society. 

In this video, host Amna Nawaz brought on two experts to talk about the growing role Generation Z plays in the future of the voting population. Noorya Hayat from the Center for Information Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) and Kellen Edmondson from HeadCount Hayat shared recent youth voter trends and students asked questions of Edmondson about voter registration and receiving mail-in ballots on college campuses.

In the associated activity, use the videos, discussion questions, and activities to learn statistical information about the different ways young people turn out to vote.

Hosted by Amna Nawaz, senior national correspondent and primary substitute anchor for the PBS NewsHour. The event included special guests; Hari Sreenivasan, NewsHour senior correspondent and anchor for NewsHour Weekend, Savannah Sellers, NBC News and MSNBC correspondent and co-host of Stay Tuned, NBC’s twice-daily news show on Snapchat and Instagram, and Peter Hamby, host of Snapchat’s Good Luck, America.