Tuesday, February 15, 2005

Interesting voting age law question

From the bsement of the Capitol. . . .I am working on SB 227 to allow 16 year olds who get their drivers license the ability to register to vote at the Secretary of State's office. Young people have the lowest rate of voting and registration and one reason (however small is that they do not get registered when they get ther license as adults do. So here is the puzzle: how do you register someone to vote when they are not eligible because they are too young? We came up with 'pre-registration' but ideally they would just register. At comittee today I heard there might be a federal law requiring registrants to affirm they are 18 when they register. If anyone has any ideas on how to get more young people registered - especially when they are already giving their data to the government - please post.

2 comments:

IlliniPundit said...

How about when they register for (gasp!) Selective Service? (Do women register for Selective Service?)

Jason said...

I grew up in Wisconsin, so things might work differently here--I don't know. But I think I had to renew my license at the age of 18, and if so, that'd be the time to register someone.