With graduation approaching, The Civics Center is launching the Class of 2022 Ready to Vote Challenge to encourage high school seniors to register to vote before the end of school.
We’ve found that in many cities across the country, fewer than 20% of 18-year-olds are registered to vote. Four million young people turn 18 every year, and the vast majority are eligible to register to vote before they graduate from high school. Most schools however, have no programming or plans to help youth register. Graduation season and other end-of-school activities present nonpartisan opportunities for helping youth register before they graduate.
With the upcoming midterm elections about six months away, graduation season - running for roughly six weeks from mid May to late June - is a great time to get students registered before they move on to college and the workforce. High school is the best time to reach non-college bound youth and to make sure everyone can vote in the first election in which they are eligible.
The Civics Center’s Class of 2022 Ready to Vote Challenge engages educators, students, parents, and community members in the high school registration process. The Challenge already has more than 40 co-sponsor non-profit organizations. Those who accept our challenge pledge to ask every high school senior they know to register to vote before graduation. Anyone who takes the pledge will receive 10 free Class of 2022 Register to Vote stickers with QR codes that link to our registration portal.*
We’ve created a Digital Toolkit that includes graphics, social media posts, model email announcements, and more that you can distribute to students to encourage youth voter registration. These resources are great to share online and post around campus to make registering easy.
As part of our challenge, we are inviting students and educators to our free workshops that go over the best strategies for holding a voter registration drive at their schools. We’ll provide the support and resources they need to make planning a drive easy. You can help by referring a student or teacher to these programs.
We also hope you will consider donating to support this campaign and youth voter registration. Your financial support is crucial in making sure we can have the greatest impact possible in registering high school students across the country.
Are you up for the challenge? Help make sure that young people are registered to vote before they leave high school:
First, take the pledge to ask seniors to register to vote.
Second, check out our Digital Toolkit.
Third, encourage students and educators to sign up for one of our free one-hour workshops.
Finally, please donate to support this campaign.
The Class of 2022 Ready to Vote Challenge is led by The Civics Center and co-sponsored by American Constitution Society, Bay Area Youth Climate Summit, Broward for Progress, Business for America, Campus Vote Project, Center for Common Ground, Climate Jam Project, Common Cause Texas, CommonDefense.us, Deliver My Vote Education Fund, Democracy Initiative Education Fund, DemocraShe, Fair Elections Center, FairVote, Fix Democracy First, Future Coalition, Girls Learn International, HeadCount, Lawyer Moms Foundation, LDF, League of Women Voters, League of Women Voters New Hampshire, March For Our Lives, MuslimWomenSpeakers, National Association of Councils on Developmental Disabilities, New North Carolina Project Foundation, Open Democracy, Our Vote Texas, PA Youth Vote, Poder in Action, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, Rural Arizona Engagement, The Workers Circle, Third Act, United Church of Christ Justice and Local Church Ministries, Vote.org, VoteRiders, Women’s March Foundation, YMCA, YVote/Next Generation Politics, and 18by Vote.
*Stickers are available while supplies last.