Happy Mother’s Day! 2020 Edition: Calling all moms.

Mom, what’s for dinner? Mom, the wi-fi is down! Mom, where are my purple socks? 

A lot of lofty generalizations float around on Mother’s Day. One generalization that is often ignored is that moms perform a lot of unpaid labor at home and at work and solve problems that result from a lack of public planning. 

I know a lot of moms now who, when they are not worried about health and the economy, are worried about our democracy. They worry about whether the election in November will be free, fair and safe, and open to everyone who is eligible, young and old, alike.

In 2017, I learned for the first time that young people in California and more than a dozen other states can preregister to vote when they turn 16. This was a shock because my own daughter was 16, and the law had been in place for several years. Yet I had no idea, and when I asked other lawyers and moms about the law, they had no idea either. 

Our state Legislature had passed a law with a great idea about getting young people registered to vote. But the Legislature hadn’t put any money or administrative structure in place to implement the law effectively. Were they thinking it would work like magic? Did they say to themselves that moms everywhere would somehow learn of the law’s existence and then organically come to the rescue in every community, helping their teens fill out the forms while waiting in line at the grocery store? 

And if they were counting on moms, then the least the Legislature could have done is to let moms know that the opportunity was available to add one more task to their to-do lists.

I don’t mean to pick on California. Most states are no better, and some are much worse. Texas, for example, makes young people wait until they are 17 years and 10 months before they can sign up to vote.

Texas and California and most other states are identical, however, in making it legally possible for young people to register to vote before they graduate from high school, but then failing to put money or an effective implementation plan in place to get the job done. 

States should have a big megaphone and bell that they use at state capitol buildings when they enact such laws. The bell should ring, and the megaphone should shout out one word: Mom! The required tone of delivery is the desperate cry for help in finding that missing pair of purple socks. 

Our Legislature in California tried to fix the problem of low youth voter registration earlier this year. Both houses passed a bill requiring school programs to address voter registration. Schools could have sought reimbursement from the state to cover their expenses. Our Governor vetoed the measure.

Mom!

Preregistration rates in California stand below 20%. Many states have lower numbers. What this means is that most young people are turning 18 without being registered to vote. 

There is a lot we don’t know about how to increase youth voter registration and turnout. But one thing we know for sure is that the federal government is not going to fix this problem, at least not in 2020.

We also cannot count on the courts to protect our right to free or fair elections in which all eligible voters participate. If we have not learned that from Shelby County in 2013 and the Supreme Court’s ruling about the Wisconsin primary a few weeks ago, we are not paying attention. 

States are focused on mail-in ballots, which we obviously need. But mail-in balloting does nothing to address the 3.5 million high school seniors who are about to graduate from high school and need to get registered to vote in order to get on the list to receive a mail-in ballot. 

Even our school districts have no plans, like the obvious, simple, and inexpensive one of distributing voter registration forms along with diplomas.  

This is not a red state or a blue state issue. It is everywhere.

Mom!

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The Civics Center has recently launched a project with Lawyer Moms Action (a national group that sounds just like its name) to increase direct outreach to high schools.  If you are interested in joining in this project, please contact Vicki Shapiro at vcs@thecivicscenter.org.