The youth vote effort emerged out of student frustration at the limitations their advocacy had on School District decisions regarding budgeting, staffing, and school closures. Beginning in 2019, youth leaders from Oakland Kids First and All City Council began researching ways to build a brand of power that was immune from the type of tokenization and sidelining that had become commonplace in OUSD. They settled on the idea of fighting for youth voting rights in School Board elections and pitched it to other youth groups at ACC’s annual retreat. The Oakland Youth Vote campaign and coalition was born there.

After researching how voting rights could be won, youth organizers began meeting with Oakland City Council members to explore the issue and eventually partnered with then City Council President Rebecca Kaplan to develop a ballot measure that would grant voting rights in school board elections to 16 and 17-year old Oaklanders. As momentum was building, the COVID 19 pandemic shut down the city and put the Oakland Youth Vote campaign on thin ice. Students continued to forge ahead and convinced the City Council to agendize the issue. In May 2020, 100% of council members voted in support of placing the measure on the ballot, advancing Oakland Youth Vote to the public for a vote as Measure QQ in the November 2020 election.