Increasing Youth Participation: The Case for a National Voter Pre-Registration Law

s of the United States, U.S. CENSUS BUREAU, http://www.census.gov/compendia/ statab/2012/tables/1 2s0271.pdf (last visitedJan. 15, 2010). 107. Id. 108. HESS & HERMAN, supra note 4, at 2-3. WINTER 2012] 499 University of Michigan journal of Law Reform A further benefit of providing pre-registration in schools is that students in states requiring voter identification to register may be able to use school-issued identification if they register through a school program. Currently, young voters are especially burdened by identification requirements when registering. Under HAVA, all first time voters must prove their identity either at the time of registration or at the polling place if they registered by mail.'09 At least twenty-six states have broader voter identification requirements for registration than mandated in HAVA."o Young people are less likely to own government issued identification. For example, in Indiana where a voter ID law was passed-and upheld by the United States Supreme Court"'-a study found that younger citizens were 9.3% less likely to have valid photo identification than those aged thirty-fiveto fifty-four." 2 Acquiring identification can be especially difficult for young people who may not have access to disposable income to pay for government issued identification or transportation to access government offices."' Without the required identification, many young citizens simply cannot register or vote. Allowing students who register at school to use their school-issued identification would make it easier for students to bypass burdensome identification requirements when registering for the first time. This student ID would obviously have to meet the requirements of both HAVA and any state ID requirement. Alternatively, Congress could include as a provision of a national preregistration law an amendment to HAVA to allow school-issued ID to meet the requirements of HAVA for registration purposes. In addition to being easier for students, registrations completed through schools are also more likely to be successful because election administrators can work with school officials to contact a student who fills out the application incorrectly or incompletely rather than simply rejecting it." In order to ensure the success of a national pre-registration law, Congress could use funding as an inducement to require high schools to provide students with the opportunity to register to vote on campus. There is already a mandate-although it is little known and poorly enforced-in the Higher Education Act which requires that colleges and universities that receive federal funding either 109. 42 U.S.C. § 15483 (2006). 110. Numerous states also require photo ID in order to vote. Voter Identification Requirements, NAT'L CONF. OF STATE LEGISLATURES, http://www.ncsl.org/default.aspx?tabid=16602 (last visited Aug 8, 2011). 111. Crawford v. Marion Cnty. Election Bd., 553 U.S. 181 (2008). 112. Baretto, supra note 97, at 21 fig.2. 113. See Crawford, 553 U.S. at 213-16 (SouterJ., dissenting). 114. McDonald & Thornburg, supra note 60, at 560. [VOL. 45:2 500 Increasing Youth Participation send out voter registration forms to all students or risk losing their federal funding."' Similarly, Congress could create a mandate within a federal pre-registration law to require that all high schools receiving federal funding provide voter registration on campus or face a financial penalty. Unfortunately, such a mandate would not have a broad impact. Currently, only schools that serve a high percentage of low-income students are eligible for direct federal funding through Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act." Further, only twenty-nine percent of secondary schools receive Title I funding."' Thus, less than a third of all sixteenand seventeen-year-old students would be reached through such a mandate. Another potential avenue to ensure that voter registration is offered in high schools would be for Congress to amend the definition of designated voter registration agencies in NVRA. Currently, under Section 1973gg-5 each state must designate all "offices in the State that provide public assistance" and "all offices in the State that provide . . . services to persons with disabilities" as voter registration agencies."" States must also designate other government offices within the state as voter registration agencies, although it is left to the state to determine which state or local offices to select from a list, which includes public schools."9 Given that Congress has the authority to designate some state or local offices as mandatory voter registration agencies, it is conceivable that it could use this same authority to extend the mandatory category to include public schools. 20 As a result, all public high schools within every state would be required to provide voter registration opportunities. If this were combined with a uniform national voter 115. Higher Education Act of 1965, 20 U.S.C. § 1094(a) (23) (A) (2006). See also Douglas R. Hess and Steven Rosenfeld, Universities Have an Obligation to Help Students Register to Vote, DESMOINESREGISTER.COM (Sept. 16, 2010), http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/ pbcs.dll/article?AID=2010916033; Little Known Law Could Boost Youth Voter Registration Before Election, If Action Taken Now, PROJECT VOTE (Oct. 1, 2010), http://www.projectvote.org/