Connecting the vote with the future: the key to mobilizing youth in 2026
Diana Dajer, democracy manager at the Corona Foundation.
On March 8, Colombia will elect a new Congress. Of the 41.2 million people eligible to vote, approximately 9.5 million are young people between the ages of 18 and 28. This represents almost a quarter of the electorate, with the real power to determine who will occupy the next seats. However, voter abstention in Colombia traditionally exceeds 50% . Young people represent an electoral bloc that could sway the outcome in any direction.
According to the 2025 Youth in Society survey , conducted by Cifras & Conceptos with the support of Fundación Corona, the London School of Economics' Next Gen C program, Fundación Bolívar Davivienda, and El Tiempo newspaper, 61% of young people consider living in a democracy very important, and 58% declare their intention to vote for Congress in March. However, intention does not automatically translate into action. The barriers are concrete: 53% indicate they do not know how to participate, 39% distrust institutions, and 21% feel their voice does not matter.
Adding to this is a paradox: 78% of young people report having internet access at home and 96% connect via mobile phone, but only 12% feel safe searching for political information online, and a mere 14% say they can identify fake or AI-generated content. Thus, mobilizing young people in 2026 requires more than just a digital presence: it requires understanding why they don't vote and what would motivate them to do so.
Two recent studies offer practical recommendations for mobilizing the youth vote in these elections. First, the aforementioned Youth in Society survey, which polled 3,221 young people about their perceptions of and barriers to democracy. Second, a narrative experiment by the Corona Foundation and Movilizatorio, with support from People Powered and Busara, conducted within the framework of the International Alliance for the Narrative Transformation of Democracy , randomly tested with over 4,000 young people which types of messages effectively increase their willingness to vote.
The evidence points in three directions: connecting electoral information with narratives of personal futures, combining digital channels with face-to-face conversations, and entrusting the message to close voices, not to parties or influencers, who appear as the actors with the least trust among Colombian youth.
1. Talk about the future, not about civic duty
According to the Youth in Society study, 61% of young people value living in a democracy, but only 20% are satisfied with how it functions. The gap isn't ideological; it's experiential. What worries them most are delays in healthcare (51%), insecurity on the streets (49%), and unemployment (44%). These are concrete, everyday problems that they experience firsthand. However, communication about democracy rarely puts them at the center. They are told about institutions and civic duty when they are thinking about how to pay for a doctor's appointment or find a job.
To understand what messages can close that gap, in the context of the 2025 Youth Council elections, Fundación Corona and Movilizatorio conducted a randomized controlled trial through the Swayable platform, with more than 4,000 young people between 18 and 28 years old.
Participants were randomly assigned to four groups: a control group with no message, a group that received only information about the electoral process, a group that received the same information accompanied by a future-oriented narrative showing how voting could impact the issues that mattered most to them, such as education or security, and a group that received the information with a FOMO (fear of missing out) message, urging them not to be left out because their peers would be voting. The finding was clear: the only message capable of reducing the group that declared they would not vote was the one that connected information with a future-oriented narrative. That is, the one that showed the person what was at stake for their own life.
This is no coincidence. The Youth in Society study reveals that, despite dissatisfaction with democracy, 74% of young people report joy as their predominant emotion, and 61% declare themselves satisfied with their lives. This is not a defeated or cynical generation. It is a generation that has realistic expectations about its future and that reacts when it perceives that a decision could bring it closer to or further from that future.
Voting doesn't move them as an obligation or a form of protest, but as a tool. The narrative that resonates isn't one of fear or duty, but one of agency, one that tells young people their vote can mean timely medical care, a decent job, or a safer street. The recommendation, then, is to build pro-democracy communication grounded in these concrete aspirations and show what's at stake for each young person's life, not for democracy in the abstract.
2. Combine digital with in-person
Digital access among Colombian youth is high. 78% have internet at home, 96% connect via mobile phone, and the most used channels in the last week were WhatsApp (73%), Facebook (67%), and TikTok (53%). However, a presence on these platforms does not equate to civic participation. 56% did not engage in any digital political or civic activity in the last year, and although 30% share political content on social media, only 9% discuss or comment on it.
This isn't a call to ignore digital technology, but rather to understand its true place. Platforms have reach, but face-to-face conversation has depth. This shows that the persuasion that can move someone to vote usually happens face-to-face: in the classroom, in the neighborhood, at a community meeting. A concrete example of how this face-to-face deliberation can be built is the Democratic Patch of the Mi Sangre Foundation, a methodology that promotes political dialogue in small groups through playful and reflective exercises. It's not a traditional civics workshop, but an experience that makes politics accessible. The kind of space that data suggests is needed.
The recommendation is to intentionally combine both approaches. Use digital platforms to distribute practical information and future narratives on a large scale, and complement this with in-person spaces where deliberation has more traction and commitment takes root.
3. Entrust the message to voices close to the people, not to parties or influencers
The trust map revealed by Jóvenes en Sociedad 2026 (Youth in Society 2026) is striking. Digital influencers are the least trusted actors among young people, at 22%. Political parties fare not much better, at 28%. The media reaches 35%, and social media as a source of political information at 36%. At the other end of the spectrum, the National Registry inspires trust at 72%, Youth Councils at 62%, and youth organizations at 59%.
The implications are clear. The most effective actors for mobilizing democratic participation are those who are close to the youth, such as youth advisors and community leaders—peers with a proven track record. Even better if the young people themselves co-create and distribute the messages, because peer-generated content has greater credibility and organic reach, both online and offline. It's not about talking to young people about voting, but about young people talking to themselves about it.
One week to mobilize
In 2026, mobilizing young people isn't about more advertising, but about more meaning. Trust is built in everyday life, through face-to-face conversations, credible peers, and co-created messages that combine clear information with purpose. The formula is simple yet demanding: explain what's at stake for each young person's future, use digital tools to activate engagement and in-person interactions to deepen understanding, and entrust the narrative to relatable role models. Ultimately, mobilizing the youth vote is about remembering that democracy works when it feels like their own.
Published in La Silla Vacía: https://www.lasillavacia.com/red-de-expertos/red-de-democracia-y-tecnologia/conectar-el-voto-con-el-futuro-la-clave-para-movilizar-a-la-juventud-en-2026/