Hey Moms & Dads: Democracy Needs You
Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about parents. Mother’s Day just passed, and Father’s Day is around the corner. Graduation season is in full swing. Roughly eight million parents of high school seniors are closing this chapter and getting ready to move on. I see them getting just a little emotional as their teens walk across a stage, and any parent can tell us this generation is facing plenty:
Teen mental health is in crisis.
Gun violence is now the leading cause of death for US teens.
Young people in the United States (and around the world) are already experiencing harmful effects of climate change.
More than 200 anti-LGBTQ bills impacting schools and education have been introduced in state legislatures during their 2023 legislative sessions.
I don’t have a megaphone, but if I did, I’d use it to send a special message to Moms, Dads, and teens: It’s a top priority for young people to have an equal voice in our democracy so they can shape the solutions for the challenges they face.
But most schools aren’t helping teens register to vote. Most local election officials aren’t helping. It’s up to all of us.
Some states, unfortunately, are doing their best to make elections inaccessible to young people.
Ohio passed a new law last year taking away the right of 17-year-olds to vote in primary elections if they will be 18 by election day. Ohio doubled down with another new law, this year requiring a government-issued ID to vote in person, but high school and college IDs don’t qualify.
Florida has passed a series of laws imposing burdensome requirements on groups that collect voter registration form or that distribute partially completed forms, and stiff penalties for violations.
Texas, which forces young people to wait until they are 17 years and 10 months before submitting a voter registration form (in one of the most restrictive age-based laws in the country) also imposes burdensome restrictions on organizations and individuals that collect voter registration forms.
It takes a lot to make me angry, but the laws that make it hard for young people to register and vote, when they in fact meet the applicable age, citizenship, and residency requirements, cross the line. That’s youth voter suppression, plain and simple. Laws like these make it harder for them to participate in elections, and represent the opposite of what our country should stand for, and what we all should expect.
Youth voter suppression has a real impact:
In New Hampshire, with a set of the most burdensome registration laws in the country, only 13% of 18-year-olds were registered to vote as of the September before the midterms.
In Wisconsin as of January 2022, only 1500 18-year-olds were registered in the two most populous counties, Milwaukee and Dane.
In Philadelphia and its surrounding suburbs, as of the deadline to register to vote for the midterms in Pennsylvania, fewer than 40% were.
In Ohio and Arizona, in most school districts in the most populous counties, fewer than 30% were registered.
But in all these states, one thing remains true: Parents can help their teens register as soon as they are eligible.
Here are four ways parents can help:
(1) Sit with your teen and make sure they fill out their own registration form as soon as they are eligible. Many state online systems require a state ID or driver’s license, and some states have no online system. Check state age requirements here. You can go here to register online or to print out forms. Check your state’s election office website for ID and other requirements.
(2) Many states have ID rules to vote that are more burdensome than those to register. Make sure your teens have the IDs they need.
(3) Teens can help their peers by learning how to run a voter registration drive in their high school. Check out our training program here.
(4) Reach out to your high school and let them know that voter registration should be part of high school life, and encourage them to make it a tradition so that other parents won’t have to do this on their own and so their teens won’t be left out.