As the nation works to motivate young voters to go to the polls Nov. 2, North Carolina looks to engage an even younger subset of the population. Through a new law that allows 16- and 17-year-olds to pre-register to vote, the state hopes to get youths interested in democracy and voting at an early age.
The law, which took effect Jan. 1, 2010, allows teenagers to pre-register at the same time and age they get their driver’s licenses and requires voting processes to be incorporated into high school civics curriculums. Bob Hall, executive director of Democracy North Carolina, said he hopes the new law will send the message that registering is the ticket to “first class citizenship,” just as a driver’s license is a “ticket to freedom.”
“Research shows that if you get kids interested in and practicing voting early, it will help them see it as regular life and an expression of power and who they are,” Hall said. “However, if they don’t vote by the time they are 30, they will likely never vote.”
In an attempt to secure some of those young voters, members of the Durham County Board of Elections visited eight area high schools in September as part of an initiative to get 16- and 17-year-olds pre-registered to vote. The Board of Elections staff teamed up with Democracy North Carolina and Kids Voting Durham, registering and pre-registering a total of 579 students.
“The visit was successful, students were engaged, they were listening and they actively wanted to participate,” said Ketty Thelemaque, advisor of Young Teen Democrats at Charles E. Jordan High School, one of the schools the Board of Elections visited.
Still, it is unclear how this law will actually affect the voting habits of teenagers once they are able to vote.
“I don’t think pre-registering will solve the problem,” said Diego Quezada, a senior and president of the Young Teen Democrats at Jordan. “It’s very easy to get registered at 18. I don’t think the problem is opportunity to register, but lack of interest.”
Thelemaque said she hopes pre-registration and the expansion of the civics curriculum to include voting processes will make students conscious earlier, allow for serious discussions with those who are already voting and make the voting process real for them.
To pre-register, a teenager fills out the regular voter registration forms and the file is automatically sorted into an incomplete que, which also stores forms that are missing information for already eligible voters. When those teenagers are eligible to vote in the next election and meet all other voter criteria, the system transfers their forms to the general registered voter list. Individuals are then sent a notice by mail that they are registered to vote.
There is not a significant implementation cost associated with pre-registration, said Mike Ashe, Durham County Board of Elections director. It will use the same forms and go through the same processing as every other voter registration.
“Historically, 18- to 25-year-olds vote less than any other age demographics,” Ashe said. “This statute affords the opportunity for more young people to participate in democracy and vote.”
According to FairVote.org, a website to promote voter participation, other states including Florida, Hawaii, Maryland, Rhode Island, Delaware, and the District of Columbia allow pre-registration at age 16, and California and Oregon at age 17.
“Young people are the largest group in our society that are not registered,” Hall said. “I think there is just not an orientation to encourage them to get involved. There is more lip service than actual service.”
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