The Civics Center: Unlocking the Power of Preregistration for Young Voters
Young people have a critical stake in the future of our democracy, but too often face barriers when taking the first step towards civic engagement: registering to vote. Nobody understands this better than The Civics Center, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization on a mission to make voter registration part of every high school in America.
The Civics Center trains students and educators to run voter registration drives in high schools, empowering young people in their own spaces. In 2024, students trained by The Civics Center conducted more than 300 voter registration drives, a number the organization hopes to double by 2026.
Since 2022, The Civics Center has partnered with TurboVote to help power its transformational voter registration efforts. A key component of this strategy is preregistration, allowing future voters to register as soon as they’re old enough to do so in their state. More than half of teenagers live in states that allow preregistration at age 16 or earlier—a massive opportunity to bring young people into the democratic process early.
To take advantage of this, The Civics Center equips students with TurboVote-backed tools that make it easy to preregister and encourage their peers to do the same. Students conducting registration drives receive a URL and QR code unique to their high school, allowing them to celebrate progress and streamline their registration efforts. The Civics Center also launched a hub allowing high school students to sign up for training and check preregistration requirements from the same web page they can register to vote, optimizing opportunities for engagement with the organization’s programs.
“TurboVote’s preregistration tool has been working great since the fall of 2022. The [TurboVote] team has stayed on top of changes needed as new states have introduced preregistration and has worked with us to optimize our use of the opportunity.”
Because TurboVote provides clear and actionable guidance on the preregistration requirements specific to each state, students registering through The Civics Center’s program receive accurate election information that they can count on, building the kind of trust that’s crucial for young people starting their voting journey.
And this work has paid off. In 2024, 18- and 19-year-old voters who preregistered or registered with The Civics Center using TurboVote turned out in the general election at a rate 23 percentage points higher than the national average. Young voters registering with The Civics Center outpaced their peers in turnout in battleground states such as Arizona and Pennsylvania.
Graphic courtesy of The Civics Center, showcasing their turnout rates compared to state averages.
As The Civics Center continues to unlock opportunities for preregistration and youth empowerment, it will keep breaking down barriers for young people finding their voice in our democracy. This inspirational work demonstrates that, with reliable and simple tools at their disposal, young voters will be on their way to a lifetime of civic engagement.
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