Promote Youth Voter Registration

What Can Policymakers Do?

• Provide youth with ongoing training in civic participation. Ongoing training in civic participation is essential for youth to feel empowered and capable of engaging in the projects they pursue. States can invest in and coordinate training opportunities in the policy process, government structure and community resources as well as skills like community organizing and delivering presentations to decision-making bodies. In 2004, Louisiana passed legislation (SB 11, Act. No. 596, Sec. 1.) to create a Commission on Civic Education to educate students about the importance of citizen involvement and to promote communication and collaboration among organizations in the state that conduct civic education programs.[1] The Michigan House Civics Commission is a bipartisan initiative in which state legislators travel across the state and conduct hearings with youth. Students prepare testimony in their classes, whose curriculum is aligned with the commission’s curriculum, and present it to policymakers.[2] Created in 1999 by Governor Tom Ridge, Pennsylvania's Vote with a Vet program is conducted by the state Departments of State, Education, and Military and Veterans Affairs and pairs youth with veterans to help them seeing the importance of voting and civic engagement.[3]

• Require voter education/registration drives. Registering to vote at a young age boosts voting turnout in the short- and long-term: in 2008, 83 percent of registered 18- to 24-year-olds voted, and electoral analyses show that voting behavior is habit-forming. However, only 59 percent of eligible voters ages 18 to 24 are registered.[4] State policymakers can require that county elections officials run voter education and registration drives and, as a complement, offer youth preregistration—in which youth are registered before they reach voting age and are automatically added to the voting rolls upon turning 18—to youth in schools and community settings. Florida law requires Supervisors of Elections to conduct voter education and outreach activities in each public high school and college campus within their county. The state has a long history of youth preregistration, beginning in 1972 and expanded in 2008 to allow sixteen-year-old to preregister to vote.[5] State legislators can also support and fund state-level voter education and registration efforts. The Secretary of State’s Office for Georgia organizes comprehensive get-out-the-vote efforts through a corporate participation project, engaging companies in voter education and registration; offers assistance in running local voter registration drives; sends staff to speak to voters and provides sample materials for running voting drives. In addition, the state declared April to be High School Voter Registration Month and provides resources for outreach to youth, including materials specific to registration and debate organization on college campuses.

• Organize candidate forums with youth. To directly engage youth in the electoral process and hold candidates accountable to their youth constituents, state policymakers can organize candidate forums with youth. Such forums enable youth to identify issues of importance to their community and peers, question candidates and educate themselves and others about the voting process. During the 2010 election campaign, over 400 youth leaders in Massachusetts participated in the gubernatorial candidates’ forum on youth issues. Sponsored by the Lenny Zakim Fund, co-chaired and facilitated by youth leaders and covered by state and local media, the forum focused on funding, legislation and policies related to providing youth with experiences that promote healthy development and youth violence prevention.