How TurboVote Impacted Three Major 2025 Primaries

As Democracy Works focuses on strengthening local democracy and civic engagement, 2025's primary elections provided crucial opportunities to test new approaches and implement product innovations. With local elections often experiencing lower turnout despite their direct impact on communities, these primaries served as important proving grounds for voter engagement strategies.

We reached hundreds of thousands of voters across three major primary elections in New Jersey, Virginia, and New York City this summer. From helping people register to vote and check their registration status to delivering reminders and sample ballots, TurboVote guided users through every step of the process. These elections demonstrated TurboVote’s ability to scale voter outreach and spark meaningful civic action.

Reaching voters at scale

Through TurboVote, Democracy Works delivered more than 2.3 million election reminders to users in New York City, Virginia, and New Jersey. These personalized texts and emails encouraged voters to take important actions like checking their registration, learning what was on their ballot, and finding where to vote.

With the addition of new notifications to help people vote early this year, total notification volume increased significantly compared to 2021 primaries:

• In New York City, we sent more than 860,000 notifications, a 65% increase from 2021
• Virginia saw a 56% increase in notifications sent
• We surpassed more than 1 million election reminders in New Jersey

This growth reflects continued demand for clear, accessible, and timely election information, and helped voters turn out at an increased level.

New Jersey nearly doubled its 2021 primary turnout with 1.3 million voters casting a ballot – the state’s most-ever in a governor’s primary race – compared to just over 750,000 in 2021. Virginia set a new early voting record, and overall turnout was comparable to 2021 despite both parties running unopposed in the race for governor. New York City experienced its highest turnout for a mayoral primary in several decades, with more than a million New Yorkers casting a ballot.

Engaging the next generation of voters

Young people made up a large share of new TurboVote users across all three primaries.

• In New Jersey, 53% of new users were under 25, and 70% were under 35
• 78% of new users in New York City were under 35, including 33% under 25
• In Virginia, 39% of new users were under 25, and 61% were under 35

This type of outreach is essential to closing the age gap in civic participation. By reaching younger voters early and often through digital channels, TurboVote brings the next generation of voters into the process.

High engagement in New York City

New York City voters were particularly engaged, interacting with TurboVote at a higher-than-average level.

• The overall click rate on election notifications in NYC was 6.82%, including a 9.3% click rate on SMS notifications. For comparison, the industry standard click-through rate across all emails is typically between 2-3%.
• NYC users frequently interacted with TurboVote tools:
  
  • 27,828 election guide views
  • 18,998 new users signed up
  • 11,098 sample ballot views
  • 10,131 voting location lookups
  • 4,623 self-reported that they voted to receive post-election guidance

These high engagement rates indicate that investments in voter outreach, including more frequent messages, integration into NYC’s online voter registration system, and mobile-friendly resources, are paying off. Learn more about TurboVote product innovations for the NYC primary. 

TurboVote supports action at every stage

Democracy Works and TurboVote helped nearly 700,000 users across these three primaries. By delivering accurate information, reminders, and resources, TurboVote played a vital role in preparing voters and removing common barriers to participation; according to the Census Bureau, in 2024, 17.8% of non-voters said they were too busy, 7.4% were out of town, and 4.1% forgot – all problems that TurboVote can help resolve with its election information and guidance for voting early and on Election Day. Despite differences across the three elections, it was evident that people took action when offered simple, guided tools.

As we apply these strategies to reach voters through digital channels with increased notification volume for elections throughout 2025, we're not just supporting individual voters — we're strengthening the foundation of local democracy itself. These results demonstrate that with the right tools and approach, high civic engagement isn't just possible; it's achievable at scale.