March 6, 2008

For Youth Organizers, It's All About Registering Voters

Posted by Karlo Barrios Marcelo at 12:00AM

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Registering to vote is often the first and most difficult obstacle to the act of actual voting. Research shows though that once registered, young people are much more likely to vote; About eight in 10 registered young people voted in 2004.

The U.S. Constitution doesn't mention registering to vote, it only requires that citizens must be at least 18 years old to vote. And the government puts the burden of registering new voters on the citizens themselves. And there are good reasons for this, like fraud prevention.

Except for those lucky folks in North Dakota, the rest of us must register to vote. In 2004, 70 percent of young people were registered to vote; the highest registration rate since 1972. One reason for the record-high registration rate in 2004 was the unprecedented amount of resources and work invested in getting out the vote by non-partisan organizations, such as Rock the Vote, the League of Young Voters, New Voters Project, HeadCount, and Smackdown Your Vote(!), which leveraged new technology, peer-to-peer organizing, and entertainment to attract and engage young people in electoral participation.

But don't take registering to vote for granted. While laws like Motor Voter -- that now allow people to register to vote and apply for a driver's license at the same time -- do make it easier to register, not all young people pass through the Department of Motor Vehicles at age 18 (usually getting their driver's license at 16 or 17 and then returning when they are 21). Also, young people are the most mobile age group, which forces them to re-register at new residences.

So, with young people, it's especially important to continue outreach efforts to guarantee that they are registered. One of the fundamental ways to increase registration rates is by reminding young-soon-to-be-voters of the voter registration deadlines, which vary by state. (The variance in state registration laws is another headache for national registration campaigns.)

But the government can do more, and it should. Election Day Registration, for example, (EDR) is a pro-voter law that allows citizens to register at the polls on Election Day. With the addition of Iowa and North Carolina in 2007, there are now nine EDR states, and research has shown that EDR states have voter turnout rates that are 14 percentage points higher. Other states are working on EDR legislation, but here's a chance for the federal government to step-in. And you, too.