FAQs

Nationally, under 30% of 18-year-olds are registered to vote compared to about 75% of people 45 and older. This gap leaves millions of young voices unheard in our democracy.

Learn more

High school–based voter registration drives empower teens to get ready to vote and close the gap. By leading or supporting these efforts, students and educators can help build a stronger, more representative electorate.

Find out how

In this initial version of our data visualizations, we focus on comparing registration rates of 18-year-olds to those of voters 45 and above. The purpose is to show the stark differences between rates for the youngest voters and those for older Americans. Registration rates continue to increase among voters even after they hit age 45, but at a relatively modest rate. We don’t start below age 18, even for states that allow preregistration beginning at age 16, because typically voter files do not include information on preregistrants, and state practices regarding making such information available varies widely. 

We would love to publish data for all states. So far, however, gaining access to a national voter file has been cost prohibitive. To start, we are focusing on a geographically compact selection of states with varying political cultures, regulatory regimes, and outcomes in terms of registration rates for young voters.

We have been researching, publishing, organizing, and working with partners in these states for years. Our past research is available on our Substack at thecivicscenter.substack.com and on our website at thecivicscenter.org/research.

We would love to speak with you if you can provide us with free or low-cost access to a regularly-updated national voter file or if you can donate to enable us to add more states.

Please cite our data as follows: The Civics Center (as of DATE), available at data.thecivicscenter.org.

For the date, please use the date indicated on the state displays, such as Sept. 21, 2025 for this state view:

Click here for more details.

We publish analysis regularly on Substack at thecivicscenter.substack.com and on our blog at thecivicscenter.org/blog.

We are working on expanding our visualizations with more states and more details about the current states. Please leave us a note in the box on our sign-up page about what you’d like to see.

Our ability to expand this tool depends on funding. We gratefully accept donations to support the expansion of this work.

Every state in the country allows young people to preregister to vote before they turn 18. 

That means that almost everyone is old enough to register to vote while they are still in high school. You can see our map and info about specific states here. 

About half of US teens (from 19 states + DC) can register at age 16 or earlier. 

About 20% of US teens live in 18 states that are more restrictive but still allow at least a year in which young people can preregister before their first election. 

The rest of US teens, residing in 12 states, have narrower windows. But, like we said above, almost everyone is old enough to register before they graduate from high school.

North Dakota is the remaining state, and it does not require voter registration.

You can learn how to host a voter registration drive at your school here. 

Great question! The link to donate is here.

Through that page, you can make an online donation and see information about how to donate by check, through a DAF, etc.