The nonpartisan Voter Participation Center says a group known as the Rising American Electorate (RAE)  — which includes Millennials and Generation Z, minorities and unmarried women — is growing as a share of the electorate and is poised to have a major effect on the 2020 presidential election.

The group’s report, released Wednesday, found that the RAE is nearly 65 percent of the Nevada adult population. But it underperforms other groups in registration and turnout; the RAE accounts for just 56 percent of the state’s registered voters.

“You’re not going to win an election unless you speak to this group and you appeal to this group and their values — not only their needs but what they see as the country’s needs overall,” Page Gardner, founder of the Voter Participation Center, said in an interview, adding that she’s witnessed “increasingly desperate attempt to limit their power and their agency.”

Gardner says health care is consistently a top priority across the diverse members of the RAE, especially as it relates to coverage for people with preexisting conditions. 

The number of RAE voters nationwide jumped more than 22 percent from 2014 to 2018, while the number of non-RAE voters jumped less than 6 percent. The 2018 election was the first time the group constituted a majority of voters in a midterm election, and it is expected to be a majority of the electorate in 2020.

Among those who did not register to vote, 38 percent of RAE voters said they were not interested in the election or politics. That’s lower than among non-RAE voters: 49 percent of those who did not register cited disinterest or lack of involvement.

A full 29 percent of RAE voters said they did not vote because they were too busy or had a scheduling conflict with work or school.

RAE adults were more likely than non-RAE adults to cite a list of structural barriers as a reason for not registering to vote. Among those issues was missing a deadline (13 percent), not knowing where or how to register (5 percent) and not meeting residency requirements (4 percent). 

Gardner says the findings are a call to make it easier to vote, including by ensuring Election Day is not on a workday. Her organization, for its part, is actively sending out voter registration forms by mail to try to bring the registration process to the voters, rather than expecting them to seek out the opportunity at the DMV or elsewhere.

“Voting is difficult in this country,” Gardner said. “If we want to change our democracy, we have to change the rules.”