Thanks to a unique law in North Carolina, more than 100,000 16 and 17 year olds have preregistered to vote over the past 32 months and about 63,000 of them will be 18 and automatically fully registered by November 6, 2012. In many tight races, these young voters could make a big difference; and an analysis by Democracy North Carolina shows they are far more independent than their elders. With bipartisan support, Democracy NC pushed the legislation as a way to help reverse the state’s long history of low voter participation and take advantage of 16 being the age when kids take civics in high school and go to the DMV for their driver’s license. In 2010, as we helped implement the new law with resources from the State Board of Elections
LOD: 60,000+ New Young Voters
[large PDF file] and NC Civic Education Consortium, a new slogan took hold – “Register Early, Vote For Your Life” – and volunteers of all ages began fulfilling the most unique feature of NC’s law: a mandated voter registration and preregistration drive in the high schools every year. This month, the Latin American Coalition, League of Women Voters, and Democracy NC-Charlotte are providing volunteers for the drive in Charlotte-area high schools. “Once you are registered and once you start voting, it’s a habit,” says Whitney Smith of the Latin American Coalition. “You become engaged, and every time an election season comes around, you perk up your ears a little bit because of your last experience.” Rock the Vote has a new video to boost youth voting; and some partisan and nonpartisan groups have just begun using a new app that transfers a screen signature onto a registration form to launch the first complete on-line voter registration in process North Carolina history, a tool likely to be refined and attractive to Youth.
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