The Most Underestimated Way to Strengthen Our Democracy

High school voter registration is the most underestimated, underfunded, and underutilized method we have for strengthening democracy in America today.  Why? Because:

• Four million Americans turn 18 every year, and the vast majority can preregister to vote well before that birthday. In fact, 70% of U.S. teens can preregister as early as 16 or 17.
• When young people are registered they turn out at high rates. In every presidential election going back to 2004, more than 75% of registered youth (18-24) turned out. In 2020 a whopping 86% of registered youth actually voted.
• In 2020, only 52% of 18- and 19-year-olds were registered to vote, compared to 77% of Americans 45 and older. That’s almost 2 million missing votes! 
• The number of teens who are not registered but eligible to vote dwarfs the margins of victory in 2020 in many closely-contested states.
• Nationwide, roughly 40% of students do not go on to college, so we can’t rely on outreach to college students to address this shortfall.

That’s where The Civics Center comes in. The Civics Center is a non-partisan, non-profit organization that wants to make voter registration a part of every student’s high school experience.

We host two annual events that promote high school voter registration: Cap, Gown & Ballot in the spring to ensure every graduating senior has an opportunity to register to vote; and High School Voter Registration Week in the fall. This year High School Voter Registration Week will be October 2-6, 2023.

High School Voter Registration Week is a week of action aligning the school calendar with the election cycle to establish a dedicated time for students, educators, parents, and others to team up, share resources, and organize student-led voter registration drives at schools. The start of a new school year is an ideal time to encourage teens to register to vote and to build awareness for registration efforts later in the school year.

During High School Voter Registration Week the Civics Center will be holding free workshops for parents (and grandparents!), educators, and teens on October 2, 3, and 4 so anyone can attend and learn about the importance of welcoming our newest voters with a smooth on-ramp to democracy. Participants will walk away with tools specific to their cohort that will help bring voter registration to their high schools on a permanent basis.

On October 2 at 4pm (PT) / 7pm (ET), parents, grandparents and other adult friends and family members will learn about the importance of high school voter registration and its role in strengthening our democracy. We’ll help identify important resources teens can use to organize a drive in their schools. Click here to register.

In addition to training workshops, The Civics Center provides free supplies and resources to high school students and educators at any school in the country. Our “Democracy in a Box” toolkit includes everything students need to organize successful voter registration drives, like pens, clipboards, stickers, tote bags, promotional posters, and candy (a must-have for every drive!).

Third Act volunteers in Southern California and Arizona are actively promoting High School Voter Registration Week by contacting schools in their communities to help recruit educators and students. Over 35 volunteers from those Third Act Working Groups attended a one-hour training session, before getting a list of schools to call to identify educators and administrators best positioned to be liaisons for student-led voter registration efforts at each school.

This outreach is key to The Civics Center’s ability to get the word out about High School Voter Registration Week. Most schools have no current plans to help their students register to vote, and the best contact person at each school varies tremendously. We are extremely grateful to Third Act and its wonderful members for helping to make High School Voter Registration Week a success!

If you would like to contact schools in your own community to encourage educators and students to participate in High School Voter Registration Week, please visit Third Act’s “Senior to Senior” Page (linked below), which has more info about how to use TCC’s Volunteer Toolkit, including email templates you can copy and paste into a message to send to educators, students, principals, and superintendents. Just scroll through the Toolkit to find your target audience and click on the pink oval to access the desired template.

If you have high school students in your family I hope you will join me at the workshop on October 2. If not, you can still help recruit schools in your community to participate in High School Voter Registration Week using our Volunteer Toolkit and Third Act’s resources or help raise awareness of the potential for high school voter registration in your community. Thank you!

Vicki Shapiro

Vicki Shapiro is Chair of the Advisory Board of The Civics Center and an attorney at the California Court of Appeals in Los Angeles. She is a co-author of two of The Civics Center’s reports, “Introducing Students to Our Democracy:  A Case Study of Compliance with Youth Voter Registration Laws in Georgia and North Carolina” (2022), and “Future Voters and Gaps in Our Democracy: A Report and Call to Action on the 50th Anniversary of the 26th Amendment” (2021). Prior to joining the Court of Appeals, Vicki practiced intellectual property law in Los Angeles. She is a graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law and the University of Washington, both in states that give students the ability to pre-register to vote at 16.