Pro-democracy Americans Want to Push Back Against Authoritarianism. One Critical Tool is Being Overlooked.
Voter Registration Drives Are An Instrument of Power. They Should Be Happening Every Day, Everywhere. Now.
Yesterday in The Atlantic, Ann Applebaum, Author of Autocracy, Inc., addressed a burning issue we are all asking: What will stop corruption and authoritarianism? Her answer boils down to two words: “Only voters.”
Paul Rosenzweig had a similar take last week: “The final and most powerful check… has always been, and will always be, the ballot box.”
And in a recent post from the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard, Public Policy Professor Maya Sen has the same refrain: “courts alone will not be sufficient … It is in all Americans’ hands collectively to make sure that the constitutional structure is not just enforced, but also sustained.”
What all of them are saying is that voting matters. It is gratifying to see one lawsuit after another filed in an effort to halt the onslaught of extraordinary and unconstitutional executive branch actions since the 2024 election. But lawsuits alone are not enough. They can’t be when the ultimate authority, the Supreme Court, is unreliable when it comes to protecting democracy, as it has shown itself to be, and when the executive branch may not comply in any event.
Sitting on the sidelines is not an option, and we’re just beginning to see resistance from those in positions of authority, as well as citizens of both parties taking to town halls and protests to decry a slide into autocracy. But there’s a critical piece of the puzzle that isn’t getting the attention and support it deserves as an instrument of power: voter registration.
The people must register and vote in numbers large enough to show representatives that we care about our country, we insist on free and fair elections, and we want representatives who will protect our democracy vigorously.
Organizing a voter registration drive is a public act worthy of support, encouragement, and celebration, just as a street protest or town hall is. It is an act of showing up. The impact is symbolic, like a protest, and also more. As the electorate changes, it can have an immediate impact on the possibilities of electoral power on the ground. It also gets people into critical voter files, so candidates can see their strength, reach them, respond to their concerns, and let them know they intend to protect democracy.
If, at the end of the day, “only voters” will protect us, then let’s be realistic about where we stand, and what it will take to do better.
For decades, participation in presidential elections has hovered around 60%1 and 40% in midterms.2 Compare that to Germany, where participation was at 83% in their last election.3 What if, instead of blaming our low rates on non-voting individuals, we decided that it’s on the rest of us to bring them into the fold. If we care about our country and we care about democracy, and I know we do, then voter registration should be burning hot, and in full swing right now so that more people will be in a position to participate.
Voter registration – a precondition to voting in all but one US State – is often relegated to a side note or ignored entirely as a critical element in bolstering democracy against the rise in authoritarianism and making free and fair elections more likely.
It belongs on every list of urgent actions people can take to preserve democracy. Voting is the actual check, the actual power, the actual means to ensure that those in power reflect our beliefs about democracy. It needs to be front and center. So does registering as a first step. Authoritarians know this, which is why we’re seeing efforts in many states and at the federal level – with the SAVE Act and Executive Order – to make it more difficult.
Registering to vote, especially today, says you’re engaged and are going to vote in the next election. It tells public officials you are paying attention. And it will remind representatives who are wavering in their commitment to democracy and to improving the lives of Americans that the people intend to weigh in forcefully and indisputably.
Perhaps people think that existing systems are working well already. But that’s just not the case. Maybe people think midterms are not until November 2026, so there is nothing to do right now. But waiting means we’ll continue to miss millions of new voters as they come of age. Perhaps people ignore voter registration because they don’t know where to find unregistered voters. But we know exactly where millions of them are right now, where every up-and-coming voter goes every day: High school.
The largest unregistered group, and the easiest to find today, is up-and-coming voters, aka High School students.
Roughly four million high school seniors across the country are going to be graduating in the next two months. About three million more are old enough to preregister to vote right now,4 and almost all of them will be old enough to vote in the November 2026 midterms. This is the critical time to engage them. The blind eye to their existence, their needs, and the fact that current systems miss them in the millions is one of the greatest failures of American democracy. It should be on everyone’s list of democracy emergencies.
For young voters, low turnout is largely driven by low voter registration. Our research shows that in high profile races, turnout among registered youth approaches turnout of older Americans, and the 2026 midterms will surely be high profile. But fewer than 35% of 18-year-olds have been registered in every midterm of this century.5 Any individual who cares about protecting our democracy can and must work to help add millions more voters to the system if they are to fortify our constitution.
This is where our work at The Civics Center comes in.
Our mission is to make voter registration part of every high school in America. Roughly 7 million high school students are old enough to register right now. After Seniors graduate, they are no longer in a collective, educational setting, and it becomes much harder to locate them and help them register.
Graduation season is and should be voter registration season because it’s a time when students are thinking about adult responsibilities and their future and when they are taking part in various year-end celebrations, gatherings, and administrative processes in any event.
We’ve been providing resources and training to help high school students run non-partisan voter registration drives in their schools for more than six years, and we know the drives are effective. We have three independent studies showing that communities with drives through our program experienced a net gain in registration rates for 18-year-olds greater than 6 percentage points, versus comparable communities without drives. Six percentage points is huge in the voting world.
But we’re not doing it simply to increase those numbers. We’re doing it because other research organizations say it’s critical to youth voter engagement. According to a major new research report of the America’s Promise Alliance,
“young people have little support to navigate or participate in civic activities…. [They] want access to civic education and engagement opportunities, but few have frequent opportunities to do so, even outside of school.”
According to the Institute of Politics at Harvard:
“When young Americans believe their friends will vote, 79% plan to vote themselves — compared to just 35% among those who think peers won't participate.” In other words, voting is social. Community-wide voter registration drives create a community wide expectation of voting.
And a report just last week from Protect Democracy and CIRCLE talks about the struggles most young people have with connecting to democracy. Their recommendations align precisely with making voter registration a student-run experience that is part of high school life. Here are two of the recommendations:
“We must invest heavily in increasing civic access and support for young people and in improving a culture that promotes civic engagement.
We should create opportunities for young people with different attitudes toward democracy to talk, engage, and take action together in ways that leverage each group’s strengths.”
In other words, the students themselves can form their own political identities and take action, and funders should be investing heavily in the efforts that make it happen.
Research also shows that voter registration drives increase turnout and that social networks and interpersonal influence can be powerful mobilizing forces in increasing voting.
An added benefit? When students work with their peers, in person, to help one another register and vote, they are simultaneously engaging in an exchange of ideas about democracy and what kind of change they’d like to see in their communities.
They are learning to become agents of their own political futures. Which can counteract cynicism and detachment as well as provide a bulwark against authoritarianism and digital manipulation in pursuit of anti-democratic goals.
Here’s what it looks like:
We are working on precisely the kinds of interventions these respected researchers have been recommending. Since the 2024 election, however, it’s been a struggle to convince funders of the urgency to prioritize this critical piece of the democracy puzzle.
There are many good causes worthy of support. We believe in investing in young people. We believe in fortifying democracy for the short- and long-term, reaching all young Americans in the moment they are stepping into adulthood and helping them see their own role.
Supporting our work means you are directly connected to the students and educators. It is your gift that allows them to cultivate a hope for the future and pick up the baton. It’s your gift that allows there to be a baton in the first place and that creates the conditions to inspire others.
Our hope is that pro-democracy voices everywhere will encourage everyone to consider supporting us, because “The final and most powerful check… has always been, and will always be, the ballot box.”
Please support our work here:
Here’s the math. About 4 million turn 18 and graduate from high school every year. At this point in the school year, about half of high school seniors are already 18, roughly 2 million. We get this because most states allow people to start Kindergarten if they will be 5 on or about September 1 of any given year. Then about 50% of young people live in states that allow them to preregister at least by age 16. So that’s another 4 million (50% x 8 million 16- & 17-year-olds nationally). The rest of the country has narrower windows, and about 50% of today’s 17-year-olds (about 2 million) live in those states. About half of them (1 million) are old enough to register to vote today. So that’s 7 million right now. And since election day, few of them have registered. We know this because we track voter files, and we know that existing systems in most states fail the youngest voters.
Do you have a presence in every state in the union? How can I find out where your organization is in Maine or Massachusetts, or Vermont. I have family in those 3 states, who want to do more than just send you money.
According to the environmental voter project at University of Florida 85.9 people in this country did not vote in the 2024 Presidential election. It's not just young people. There was an astounding, truly tragic level of apathy in every age group.
https://www.environmentalvoter.org/updates/2024-was-landslidefor-did-not-vote
My son worked on the Harris-Walz campaign in Wisconsin. To attend those packed rallies people were required to register online and obtain a ticket to the event. The rallies were entertaining with celebrities such as the Obama's and various entertainers. Now we have the same type of events going on, especially with Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio Cortez. I don't even think people are required to register online. This is complicated, but what should happen is people should have to go to the website for The Oligarchy Tour, sign up for the event, then first be directed to the state voter registration site so they can check their registration and learn where to register. Then they can be redirected to the web page to get their ticket to the event. Bernie, Alexandria, Cory Booker, Chris Murphy and others who are holding rallies and town halls need to loudly speak out about the importance of actually voting and bringing new voters with them. This is not happening. I have no idea about how to make this happen except filling out contact form emails to each of the Senators and Reps who are having these events. Others need to do this as well, please.