Registering to Vote is Sorta Hard
Parents Need to Prepare Our Teens for the Polls this Election Season
Registering to vote can be sort of hard, and for many young people, it’s so daunting that they simply don’t do it. And of course, if someone doesn’t register to vote, that means that they are not going to actually vote come election time.
As we approach this election year, if you have children aged 17 to 22, whether they live with you or not, it’s necessary to discuss the voter registration process with them. This isn’t about coddling young adults — young people aren’t automatically equipped with the knowledge needed to engage in politics when they turn 18 — and many of our schools and other institutions simply are not doing enough to ready would-be, young voters.
In the U.S., voter turnout is notably lower than in other countries, and within the US, young adults are the least likely to register to vote. So how tricky is registering to vote? Well, it depends. Voter registration varies significantly by state, and it’s also one of the most rapidly changing policy spaces of state politics. Everything from how to register, to what forms are required, to the number of days before an election one must register, to rules around absentee voting, vary by state. In the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic many states made it easier to vote by mail, but since then many reforms have been rolled back or changed. On top of different rules for different states, anytime someone moves — even within a state — their voter registration forms need to be updated.
All states, except North Dakota, require voter registration. Some states allow same-day registration, while others have deadlines ranging from 11 to 30 days before the election. The states that have a 30-day registration requirement are concentrated in the south, but this is also true for Ohio, Rhode Island, and Alaska. What more, because each state sets their own primary election calendar, all of these dates are different across the different states.
Sixteen states allow teens to pre-register to vote when they turn 16, allowing them to make use of motor-voter provisions that bundle the opportunity to get a drivers license and pre-register to vote at the same time. But most states do not allow pre-registration, and the share of teens getting drivers licenses in the first place has been trending down over the last 30 years.
The types of identification accepted for voter registration also vary by state. Some states have stringent requirements, like a specific state-issued photo ID, while others accept more varied forms, such as fishing or hunting licenses. Some states’ practices, like not accepting student IDs for voter identification can be a hindrance to first time voters.
In most states you can simply google your state name and “voter registration” and be directed to the state voter website, fill out some online forms, and register to vote online. But that’s not true for the 44 million people who live in New Hampshire, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi, South Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana. In these states people have to either show up in person to a government clerks office to register, with various forms of ID and proof of residence or manage to get all those document together, photocopied, and mailed in to an office.
Another complexity is the different primary systems across states. In closed primary systems, registration with a party is required to participate in primary elections. As gerrymandering and partisan sorting increase, many competitive elections occur in these primaries — not in the general election that all registered voters are permitted to participate in. But information about the primary system is oftentimes hard to figure out for new voters, and so they opt to be unaffiliated with a party, as a way to show their disdain or partisan neutrality. This certainly signals something negative to the national parties, but it also makes first time voters some of the least effective when they are locked out of many pivotal primary decisions.
For college students, the advice to vote at home or request an absentee ballot is impractical. If you’ve ever been a college student or been around college students you can easily understand that asking them to go home to vote on a Tuesday is a non-starter for most. Asking them to think many weeks in advance to request an absentee ballot, get the ballot, fill it out, and remember to send it back is hard as well.
Instead, I advise my college students to register wherever they live. States have varied residency requirements for voter registration, but the key rule is not to be registered in two different places. For those who are spending 9 months out of the year at a college or university, they will likely meet the residency requirements to vote at that address, and make the whole process easier to complete.
Many schools don’t have the time or mandate to review these particularities with students, so the task falls to parents to pass on this knowledge. Young people, especially first-timers, often need guidance in navigating this system. For parents who have kids at home, visiting your state’s website together can be a great way to learn how to register. If your kids are not at home, consider sending a text or making a phone call with the registration link, especially if your state offers online registration.
As parents, we don’t want our children to be powerless or bewildered by the political system they’re stepping into. Many parents, including mine, did not discuss this topic, not because they didn’t want to, but because they themselves felt unsure of how to do it. But we can figure this out. Millennial and Gen Z parents have figured out many harder things, and with a political system that feels broken, it’s a good thing to have more people invested in fixing things. As the presidential primary season approaches, it’s important to support our teens and young adults as they become eligible to vote. Happy Registering!
