Let’s try this again: In California, 500,000+ turn 18 every year, but Governor Newsom has vetoed measures to help them pre-register to vote
California State Senator Eloise Reyes to the rescue
Can I please get a round of applause for California State Senator Eloise Reyes? Want to know why? She has sponsored California’s High School Voter Registration Act, a bill that will require all public school boards and charter school governing bodies to provide every student, before they complete 11th grade, information on how to properly preregister to vote.
The Bill is a welcome shift for California. Under current law, the Legislature “encourages” promotion of high school voter registration, but does not require it, does not cover costs for implementing it, and does not monitor implementation.
Without a requirement, schools have been left to their own devices, with many simply not understanding or prioritizing their student’s democratic participation and knowledge enough to do much to help them register. The numbers show it.
Even though pre-registration has been in effect since 2016, under 15% of today’s 16- to 17-year-olds have actually used it and are now pre-registered to vote. In the 2022 midterms, fewer than half of 18- to 24-year-olds were registered to vote in California. Providing information about preregistration to high school students before they complete 11th grade will make an enormous difference by helping teens learn about voter registration and voting in an educational and efficient setting that reaches all of the nearly 2 million public high school students in the state.
You might think existing systems are already solving the problem, but the data tell us otherwise: 37% of California 18-year-olds do not go on to college.1 50% do not get drivers licenses.2 In addition, California’s DMV voter registration system works poorly for the state’s teens, with about 45.6% opting out, according to the California Secretary of State.
We need to change this dynamic, and Senator Reyes’s bill is exactly what is needed to do so.
The Legislature has passed similar bills twice before, and Governor Gavin Newsom has vetoed them both. He also vetoed legislation that would have created a Secure Automatic Voter Registration system that would have fixed the DMV opt-out problem.
We’re determined not to let that happen again. That means we need your support in telling the Legislature that this is a priority, and getting it to the Governor’s desk as quickly as possible, along with an outpouring of support so that he signs the bill.
We will be tracking the bill and keeping you updated as it proceeds. We need your support to get it the attention it deserves.
Here’s a link to our online email campaign to contact your Representatives.
If you like this idea, but you don’t live in California, you can still help by amplifying our campaigns on social media and by encouraging your California friends to contact their representatives. You can also check out the language of the bill and send it to your own state representatives, and encourage them to get something similar in the works in your states.
Join us in making voter registration part of every high school in America.
Please consider donating to The Civics Center in support of our ongoing data and organizing work:
https://edpolicyinca.org/sites/default/files/Statewide%20NSC%20Report%20Final%20Online.pdf
Have forwarded this to some local people, including an Assembly Education Committee member I know personally although, he's probably already on-board. But encouragement never hurts.
It's very sad that Californians have to make noise over commonsense voter accessibility laws that have already been passed by their Congress. It's very disturbing that Newsom vetoed these bills.