Honor National Voter Registration Day by Helping Up-and-Coming Voters Get Engaged in Democracy
Data Show Current Systems Are Not Doing Enough to Ensure 18-year-olds are Registered and Ready to Vote
Today is National Voter Registration Day. That’s a celebration and call to action for everyone to register to vote, and help their communities do the same. We are also entering the high season for High School Voter Registration Weeks. That’s our fall campaign to encourage students to lead nonpartisan voter registration drives in their schools and to make voter registration part of high school life, year in and year out.
We do this work to address one of the gravest problems facing our democracy: our nation’s failure to help young people register to vote as soon as they are old enough. Readers here know the basic contours of the argument.
There is a huge gap in registration rates between the youngest voters and older Americans. It is this gap that is dominantly responsible for low youth turnout. Once registered, young people turn out at high rates in prominent elections.
Across the country, young people are old enough to register or preregegister to vote before the age of 18, making high school the time and place to get it done.
High school students themselves can and should be at the center of the effort. It’s their power, after all. It’s their right. Educators, parents, and other supportive adults can show them the way.
In 2024, only 44% of 18-year-olds were registered. The rate has never broken 50% in presidential years this century. It’s never broken 35% in midterm years. That means millions of missing 18-year-old voters in every single election.
In Pennsylvania, according to our research, only 27% of the state’s 18-year-olds are registered. That’s compared to 74% of voters ages 45 and above. If 18-year-olds were fully enrolled, we’d see 115,000 young voters added to the rolls just in Pennsylvania. And it’s not as if Pennsylvania has nothing going on this year. The state has a huge state Supreme Court retention election coming up that can decide the fate of democracy and reproductive freedom, among other things in that state.
It’s a massive disenfranchisement. The harm falls on our children, and therefore our families and our future.
What would it mean to take youth disenfranchisement more seriously? For one thing, funding. For some perspective on what is possible, a recent report predicts that the political parties will spend $200 million in California, fighting over Proposition 50. That’s the Election Rigging Response Act, California’s answer to partisan gerrymandering in Texas.
Meanwhile, only 12% of California’s 16- and 17-year-olds are preregistered to vote. Think of it like age-based gerrymandering, only it comes from under-investment and poor implementation, rather than overt efforts to block young people out. Still, it’s a major reason that voter registration even for older youth lags. Only 62% of 18- to 24-year-olds are registered to vote in the state, according to the US Census, compared to more than 75% for voters ages 45 and above. If all Californians in the 18- to 24-year-old age cohort were registered, California would have more than 1 million additional young voters.
Texas is similar in this respect, if not in others. If all 18- to 24-year-old Texans were registered, there would be more than 1 million additional young voters in Texas.
What would universal citizen voter registration do to the motivation or impact of gerrymandering and other voter suppression efforts? Voter suppression works around the edges. It’s a numbers game. If fewer people are registered, and the margins are narrower because of it, it’s easier for voter suppression measures to turn into real-world impact. When more people are registered and expect to have a voice, it’s harder to block them out.
What if funders at least considered spending maybe 1/10 of what they are planning to spend fighting about gerrymandering to help register millions of newly eligible voters?
Taking voter registration seriously doesn’t mean just throwing money at advertising. It means putting that funding in the right place. That includes organizing, education, bringing people together, as well as online campaigns.
Online efforts alone will not work. Texas, for example, has no online voter registration system at all. In California, only about ½ of the state’s 18-year-olds, and even fewer 17-year-olds have driver’s licenses. The state’s system does not allow you to complete your voter registration online if you do not have a driver’s license or state ID. Instead you need to print the form, sign, and mail it in, which is a very real obstacle since printers are becoming less and less of a typical household item. No wonder California’s voter registration rates are so low. Most state systems are similar or will not work at all without a driver’s license or state ID.
Research and experience tell us that in-person drives can have incredible impact. And the investment becomes more effective over time as schools develop a practice and tradition that encompasses the work.
At the end of the day, though, it’s really about the students themselves. Here’s what it looks like when students take matters into their own hands.
It’s also about you.
You can provide funding for our outreach and organizing efforts, and you can be a bridge to your own networks. The effort needs trusted messengers, and you are a trusted messenger.
So please, on National Voter Registration Day, forward this note on. Like it and share it. Talk to the students and educators in your life.
Every day, we are confronted with the enormity of all we cannot do. For most of us, it’s beyond anything we could have imagined. But we also know that our actions matter and that the more we stand up for free and fair elections, the more we make it possible for others to do so as well.
One great way to stand up for democracy is to impart to every young person the expectation that they can make a difference and the understanding that you will help.