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CEO Update: 16 million reasons not to wait

Debra Cleaver

Debra Cleaver

— 4 min read
CEO Update: 16 million reasons not to wait
Photo by Sam Balye / Unsplash

America’s youngest voters are getting left in the dust. 

In 2024, turnout among 18- and 19-year-olds was 41%. That’s not just 20 points lower than the 2024 national average (63.7%), it’s also a full 6 points lower than even their slightly older peers, ages 20–29. 

And this gap isn’t shrinking, my friends. It’s growing. In 2020, the youngest voters were already trailing the national average by 18 points and their 20-29 year-old peers by 4 points. Now the distance has widened, and we’re just…watching it happen. (Sources: Tufts, CIRCLE; Pew Research Center)

 Take a look at this table breaking down voter turnout by age group as a % of the Citizen Voting Age Population (CVAP). (Source: Kaiser Family Foundation)

This is not entirely shocking. When we wait to engage with teens until they are legally eligible to vote, their first exposure to the process happens during the loudest, most polarized, most overwhelming moment in American civic life: the final months of an election cycle.

 They’re bombarded with campaign ads, political mailers, text messages from strangers, and nonstop partisan coverage. It’s the noisiest possible environment for someone to take a brand-new civic action. Instead of showing them a clear, simple path to participation, we leave them to navigate it in the middle of a hurricane.

If you want a lifelong voter, this is the worst possible on-ramp. And that on-ramp is very, very important: voting is a habit and, like any habit, it’s easiest to build early. 

One of the strongest predictors of lifelong voting is the first age at which someone votes. A young person who casts a ballot in their first three consecutive elections is overwhelmingly likely to become a lifelong voter. 

So why are we waiting until they turn 18 to reach them?

 There are 16.4 million high schoolers in America right now who will be eligible to vote in the 2028 presidential election. Every single one of them can pre-register before they turn 18. 

If this is the first time you’re hearing about pre-registration, you are not alone. I’m the founder of Vote.org for god’s sake and it took me years to figure out. 

 Put simply, it is a registration form that is kept on file until their 18th birthday, when it automatically activates.

As with most things in voting, the rules vary wildly and unnecessarily by state, but here’s what I want you to imagine: a student pre-registers as a sophomore, forgets about it entirely, and is still ready to vote the moment they turn 18. No extra steps, no missed deadlines.

This is an absolute no-brainer.

And yet, the gap between what’s possible (near-universal pre-registration) and what’s actually happening is stark. The average pre-registration rate is just 12%. 

Only four states (Colorado, Maryland, North Carolina, and Utah) get more than 20% of eligible teens pre-registered. Colorado is the standout at 45.8% (Maryland is ~28%, North Carolina ~23%, Utah ~22%). (Source: The Civics Center)

Now take California and New York, states that both allow pre-registration at 16. Together, they have over 1.25 million 16- and 17-year-olds who could be pre-registered right now.

  • But in California, only 12.7% are pre-registered. In New York, it’s 18.3%.
  • In their most populous counties, the rates are worse: In Los Angeles and San Diego the rates range from 10.9% to 14.3%. The most populous counties in New York (New York, Kings, and Queens) have rates below 5%. (Source: The Civics Center)

These are the predictable outcomes of leaving high school voter registration to chance, or ignoring it altogether. 

I don’t like to leave things to chance.

 

Today, VoteAmerica owns FutureVoter.com, and we’re about to roll out a major V2 upgrade designed to find future voters, get them pre-registered, and follow them through their first elections.

 

We built FutureVoter to take each state’s pre-registration process (including all the quirks and fine print) and make it fast, easy, and available on the platforms teens already use. A student filling out the Common App for college? They could pre-register to vote before they hit “submit.” Logging into their student bank account? Same thing.

 

Then we’ll do the mobilization work we’re known for.

  • If a teen isn’t eligible yet, we log it and text them the day they are.
  • If they are eligible, we guide them through their state’s process in minutes.
  • On their 18th birthday, we remind them to confirm they’re registered and ready to vote.

I’m looking at this like the Head Start of voting: early intervention, sustained support, and infrastructure that quietly runs in the background, year after year. 

 

It’s not partisan. These young people can’t even vote yet. Frankly, someone else can fight over how they will vote. Our job is to make sure they do.

 

Only 11 states require or even encourage schools to register students before graduation. That’s why FutureVoter isn’t a one-time pep rally in a high school gym. It’s persistent, invisible infrastructure that works in every state, for every graduating class, without waiting for partisan campaigns to show up.

 

There are more than 16 million high school students in America right now who will be eligible to vote in the 2028 presidential election. Every single one of them can pre-register before they turn 18. Unfortunately, unless we act now, the overwhelming majority will still arrive at their first election unregistered, unprepared, and already behind.

 

The laws already allow it. We’ve built the technology. What’s missing is widespread participation.

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