Preregistration is Power
What does a 16- or 17-year-old get by preregistering to vote, when they cannot actually vote until they turn 18?
People often ask me why preregistering to vote is important if young people can’t actually vote until they turn 18. Here are my top answers.
1. Announcing Your Arrival as a Future Voter
Preregistration is a statement of interest or a signal or a status, like putting your hand up to enter a conversation or marking yourself down as an active participant in our shared future. And the statement or symbol or status is backed by your actual power to turn out and vote when the time comes.
When you preregister or register, you are telling candidates and campaigns that you are paying attention to what they are saying and doing, that they represent you, that you want them to listen to you. It’s saying you want them to act in your interests, and that you know you have a degree of power to hold them accountable in the next election.
Now, when some people hear me say how important it is to register and vote, they think I’m saying something like “just register and vote, and everything will be fine.” But that’s not what I’m saying at all.
I’m saying voting is an actual power directly tied to governmental authority, and registering is the first step to using that power. Older people use this power at much higher rates than young people today, and anyone telling young people not to bother is telling them to give up their power.
2. Using Your Power Effectively
Of course registering at high rates is not as powerful on its own as when it is accompanied by the actual voices of young people connecting with one another and with their elected officials.
So if a politician sees youth registration climbing, the idea is that they should draw inferences from that about the chances young people will vote and what young people might want. And the registration numbers by themselves should nudge candidates and campaigns to speak to the issues that matter to young people and cast their legislative votes accordingly.
When youth registration numbers are low, it’s easy for candidates and campaigns to draw the opposite conclusion and to assume that young people do not care enough to turn out come election time. And all of that is to the good and part of why I encourage all young people to register as soon as they are old enough.
But young people can use their status as registered voters to make more of an impact when they go beyond simply registering. When a young person sends an email or calls their elected official and says, my name is Charlotte or Diego, for example, and I’m in high school and I’m pre registered to vote and will be voting in 2026, and I do not want you to cut the education budget or confirm a political appointee who wants to eliminate the Department of Education, the message has more of an impact than if it’s coming from someone who is not registered.
The same is true when you write that your future is threatened by climate change and the massive rise in housing prices and the cost of college education. The politician on the receiving end, if they are acting rationally, will or at least should, take that call as seriously as from a registered voter who is already 18. If a major concern of most politicians is getting reelected, which it almost always is, what matters is who will be voting in the next election.
3. An Administrative Hurdle to Clear
There are also some more administrative reasons to preregister. One is that it simply gets things out of the way. It’s better to do things earlier than to leave things to the last minute. That’s especially true now, when some in Congress are seeking to make it harder to register to vote by imposing burdensome ID requirements that will, if passed, disproportionately impact youth.
In addition, elections can happen when you don’t necessarily expect them. If more young people had preregistered in 2024, more who are just turning 18 would be in a position to vote in special or local elections. Outside of huge national elections, candidates do not have budgets to reach out to unregistered voters, and, indeed, many people will not even hear about them until after the voter registration deadline has passed. Pre-registering as soon as possible avoids this problem.
4. Now You’re a Pro, So You Can Help Others
The final reason for pre-registering to vote as soon as you are old enough is similar to being on an airplane and putting on your oxygen mask first, before you can help others.
Once you are pre-registered to vote, you are in a better position to help friends and family members through the process. You understand what the questions on the form mean because you have worked through them yourself.
You understand you can encourage your friends to get a voter ID if they will need one at the polls. You can tell them how to get stamps if they need to mail in a form, or how to use the online system. You become a walking sign-post for democracy. People listen to others whom they trust, so once you have pre-registered, you are a trusted source for others to encourage them to do the same.
Heads up, Virginia and New Jersey!
The entire Virginia and New Jersey state legislatures as well as the Governors are up for reelection in November 2025. Young people can preregister to vote at the age of 16 in Virginia and 17 in New Jersey. Those who are 17 and turning 18 by November 2025, have the right to vote in these very important elections. The midterm elections for Congress will be in 2026, so the 16-year-olds who will miss the 2025 election can preregister now so that they’ll be ready to vote in 2026.
For all elections, pre-registering builds momentum and encourages candidates to address more clearly the issues facing young people.