(Source: MIRS.news, 08/13/2024) Nearly 127,000 teens between the ages of 16 to 17-½ are eligible to preregister to vote, and on Tuesday the Secretary of State asked the Board of Education to help get those kids engaged. 

Deputy Secretary of State Aghogho Edevbie said students who pre-registered would get their voter registration card at 17-1/2, but still wouldn’t be able to vote until they turned 18. Nearly 1 million 18-to 29-year-olds didn’t vote in 2022. 

“I know we’re always trying to get information out there, but clearly it’s not getting through. We have to rethink how we communicate,” Edevbie said. 

Schools have the tools to help students who are not civically engaged to get involved, he said, suggesting the Secretary of State could be partners with schools. 

Why bother with pre-registration when Americans can't vote until they're 18? Edevbie said pre-registration can cut down on mistakes if someone registers to vote and casts their ballot the same day. 

To help facilitate civic engagement through voting by 18-year-old students, Edevbie suggested providing simple votes. 

“We decided to ask if people like waffles or pancakes,” he said. 

The vote ended up close and demands were made for a breakdown of the votes, but he said it was those types of votes that helped get students involved in the process. 

He said there was a big push to target K-12, because that was the best time to help people understand the value of being civically engaged. 

“We’ve also found in our research that if somebody votes that first time, or maybe that second time that they’re eligible, they’re going to be consistent voters for the rest of their lives. If they don’t, the voting record is spotty,” Edevbie said. 

He said one of the biggest barriers for voting the first time wasn’t that the age group of 18-29 was disengaged, but perhaps intimidated by the process because they weren’t prepared with what would happen at the ballot box. 

“We need to do a much better job at teaching people about how to actually fill out a ballot, how to actually register to vote, and that’s what this pre-registration process is for,” he said.  

Board of Education member Judy Pritchett said her 16-year-old granddaughter had pre-registered and that the students she saw were excited about getting to exercise their voting rights. 

Board member Marshall Bullock III said he’s seen the democracy games work for increasing engagement in students and it was a good way to meet the students on their own level. 

“You said it earlier. Usually, the first-time voter is a lifetime voter,” Bullock said.