Arizona Alert: High School Seniors Graduate This Month, and Only 25% Are Registered to Vote
70,000 Arizona 18-year-olds are not yet registered
Some of the most politically powerful people in America today live in Arizona. Who are they? They are high school seniors, and they have the potential to determine the outcome of the Presidential election in Arizona and the race for a prized US Senate seat. Abortion will likely be on the ballot, as well. Unfortunately roughly 75% of them remain unregistered to vote, even though we know where to find them.
Young Arizonans can only exercise their power if they are registered to vote. Today, only 25% of the state’s 18-year-olds are registered, versus 81% of Arizonans aged 45+. Scorecards at the end of this post show further detail, with registration rates broken down by county and school district.
Right now is a critical time. Teens become much harder to reach once they graduate from high school this month:
Nationally, 40% don’t go on to college where many assume VR will occur
In Arizona, only 48.3 percent of high school graduates enrolled in some form of postsecondary education in 2022
Nationally, 40% are not getting driver’s licenses
In Arizona, a new bill is pending in the state to make it harder for teens to obtain a driver’s license
Arizona’s registration deadline for the general election is October 7, 2024, less than five months away
The good news? We know that young people turn out at high rates in presidential elections when they are registered. According to US Census data, in 2020, 88% of registered youth in Arizona turned out. In every presidential election going back to 2004, more than 75% of registered youth nationally have turned out.
When we look at their numbers against margins of victory in recent races, we see that 18-year-olds can have a big impact:
High school seniors in Arizona can’t use their power unless they are registered. Everyone can help.
The Civics Center works with students all over the country, and too often, it’s the first time they hear that they need to register in order to be able to vote.
Too often, they never realized that they can radically increase their school’s voter registration rate just by encouraging their friends to register.
Too often, when we publish important data, like the fact that 88% of registered Arizona youth turned out in 2020 or that only 25% of 18-year-olds in Arizona are registered to vote, adults have never heard of these numbers, either.
Too often, the mainstream media ignores the problem and the opportunity to fix it through robust implementation of high school voter registration.
But sometimes the message breaks through. A student, educator, parent, or community member will look at these numbers and say to themselves, “I can make a difference.” And when that happens, their imagination kicks in. They realize our communities can welcome young people into democracy instead of writing them off.
We can tell high school students that they matter. We can listen to their concerns. We can help them see how voting connects to the issues they care about.
We can hand them a voter registration form or give them a link to our online voter registration portal. We can walk them through the process of filling out a form and building a tradition at their school in which graduation season is voter registration season.
We can let them know that, sure, voting doesn’t solve everything. It isn’t the only path, or even a 100% certain path, to a shared future in which we all can thrive. It will always involve compromise and oversimplification: this person is better than that; these ballot measures should be approved or not. It isn’t nirvana or a river or a song. It will never be – isn’t designed to be – their true voice.
But it’s power. It’s their power, and they should use it.