Defend Our Future recently teamed up with some of our allies to livestream a couple of discussion panels about the importance of – and challenges to – voting. They’re both worth your time in full if you haven’t watched them already! But we wanted to make it easier for you to watch and share what we thought were some of the highlights of these discussions. You can find all of these clips below.

These short videos are just a few minutes long, but our panelists explore such crucially important topics as voter suppression, how to hold our elected officials accountable after Election Day, why there’s a huge need for poll workers this year, and why it’s often difficult to drive youth voter turnout.

It’s been a wild election year, but we only have a few weeks to go. We hope you find these conversations informative and inspiring, and that they help prompt your own conversations and actions in this monumental election year. Check them out below, and feel free to share them far and wide!

Holding elected officials accountable after election day

We’re staring down an incredibly important election. But how do we hold elected leaders accountable AFTER they’re elected? Defend Our Future New Mexico State Campus Ambassador Kyla Navarro explains.

Why voting matters

The 2020 Election stakes are extremely high. But as Defend Our Future’s Tucson organizer Karlyn Bradley explains, the stakes are high EVERY cycle for a lot of people.

Youth Turnout

Why don’t young people turnout to vote like older generations? Defend Our Future’s New Mexico State Campus Ambassador argues young people aren’t always taught in school how to participate in the political process.

Poll Workers

Why do we need more young, healthy people to volunteer to be poll workers? Andrea Sosa, Co-Director of Young People For, explains how COVID-19 has made poll working too dangerous for more vulnerable populations.

Mail-in Voting

More than ever before, mail-in voting is a huge deal this year. Know your deadlines, know your ballot dos-and-donts.

Voter Suppression

Voter ID laws, fewer polling places, fewer resources for the United States Postal Service… Andrea Sosa explains some of the ways voters can be suppressed.