The Largest Generation Project – Tools for Students
“What is Pre-Registration?
If you’re 16 or 17, you don’t have to wait to register to vote. You can fill out the form now, and submit it. On the day you turn 18, you’ll automatically be added to the voter rolls!
All Voting Questions Answered… (Except for the ones we didn’t think of!)
Where do I start?
Pre-Registration, Getting the ID You Need, Learning about the Candidates, and Understanding your Ballot.
The Big Questions to Consider
- Should governments have to help people vote?
- How can I vote when I don’t know enough?
- Why should I vote if I don’t like the candidates?
Where, When, & How Do I Vote?
Checking your Registration, Finding your Polling Place, Making a Voting Plan, and Problem Solving.
How Can I Help Other Students?
Making a presentation, learning how to run a registration drive, asking your teachers to facilitate Lift Every Vote’s workshop, and making your school more voter friendly.
How Can I Make My School More Voter Friendly?
With a push from students, schools can make many small, permanent changes that will that more students get registered and prepared to vote, every year.
The answers you need… when you need them.
You can call the Election Protection Hotline anytime. It’s staffed by voting experts, who have the state-specific information you need. Before Election Day, you might have to leave a message, but we will call you back. On Election Day, we start at 6 a.m. and can help with any problem you encounter.
Pre-Registering to Vote
“What does that even mean?”
If you’re under 18, most states will allow you to pre-register. You fill out the form ahead of time, send it in, then, on your 18th birthday you’ll automatically be registered!
“When can I pre-register?”
The rules for voter registration vary from state to state and the age you can pre-register varies by state, too. In some states, it’s 16, in others, it’s 17. In others still, it’s whether or not you’ll be 18 by the date of the next election.
“How do I pre-register?”
There are 2 ways. You can go to the DMV to fill out a paper form using the last 4 digits of your Social Security number, OR,
if you already have the ID you know you need to vote, Pre-Register Now at Turbovote.
“What?! I’m not old enough?”
You can prepare by getting the ID you need. Jump ahead to “What’s my next step?”
“Are there hard questions on the form?”
No. Just make sure you write your entire name (your “full legal name”), and sign the form.
“What’s my next step?”
Get the ID you need to vote. VoteRiders knows exactly what your state requires so check them out. Figure out exactly what documents you need to prove who you are. They vary by state so make sure you have the right info.
Find you a lawyer, if you need one, to help you get a legal ID. You can also try your local Legal Aid Society office.
Request and pay for the documents if you don’t have them (like your birth certificate).
Find a ride to and from the DMV or figure out mass transit
Pay the DMV fee for your ID
“Ballots look confusing, and I know nothing about the candidates. How do I learn more before the elections?”
Ballots have candidates and the offices they’re running for. They also have ballot measures. These are questions that, by gathering enough signatures on a petition, citizens have put those questions on the ballot and want voters to answer.
Ballotpedia has a sample ballot generator that gives you an exact image of the ballot you’ll be voting on, with your candidate choices.
Vote Smart shows you the candidates’ entire history, including their positions on the issues you care about. It will also explain the ballot measures.
“Are there any big choices I have to make?”
The one choice you have to make is deciding what affiliation you want. The choices are:
- Democratic Party
- Republican Party
- Any other, smaller party (not nationally recognized)
- Independent (no party)
“What does choosing Independent mean?”
Choosing Independent has two consequences.
The first one is simple. If you register with a party, you’ll get mailings about their candidates, fundraising appeals, and a phone call reminder to vote.
The second is a bigger deal. In states that run OPEN primaries, any voter can vote in the primary, choosing any candidate. The top 2 or 3 vote-getters then compete in the general election.
The advantage to this method is that small-party and independent candidates can compete in primaries.
The disadvantage is that in the general election, you can end up choosing between two candidates of the same party.
In states with CLOSED primaries, only party members can vote, and they can only vote for the candidate from their party.
The advantage is that people in the party choose who they think is the strongest candidate, without people in other parties maybe voting for a weaker one, to gain advantage for their own party’s candidate.
The disadvantage to this style is that if you’re in a CLOSED primary state and you register as an Independent, you can’t vote in the primary. In a state where one party dominates, this mean that the winning candidate will likely be chosen by primary voters. So you’ve weakened your power.
If you like the idea of independent candidates, thinking you’ll teach the big parties a lesson by voting for them, keep this in mind. The bigger the election, the less likely it is that an independent can win. They sometimes win in local elections, but in Congress, just 4 of its 435 members are Independents. In the Senate, it’s 2 out of 100. And in the presidential race, though we might wish it were otherwise, an independent simply can’t win because they don’t have a trained army of workers, and must build things from scratch.
So that’s important to know if you’re tempted to vote for an independent for president. It may seem like you’re voting as a protest, but the reality is, your vote will only impact the outcome IF you vote for one of the big two candidates.
So which do you want to join? One of the two big parties? A small party? No party at all? Just remember—Your vote has to be counted to matter.
How to get ready to vote
Often, you’ll be able to vote without doing all these things. But if you do them, you’ll void most hassles that can get in the way of voting and being counted.
Check your Registration Status
About 2 weeks before your state’s voter registration deadline, check your registration status. If you are not registered, click here to find your county elections office. Then give them a call.
Vote Early!
It’s a good idea, for a couple of reasons:
- It’s less crowded
- If you can’t get to the polls that day, it’s not a big deal—you still have more days to vote.
- If you’re met with a challenge at the polls—for example, they can’t find you on the voter rolls—you have time to sort things out.
- If your 18th birthday falls between the first day of early voting and Election Day, you might to wait until Election Day. Or you can call your County Election Office and ask what their policy is about 17 year olds voting early.
Find your Polling Place
Before the election, you should get a card in the mail from your county election office, giving you the address of your polling place. Put that in your phone.
If you *don’t* put it in your phone and lose it, google your county election office and check there.
- Don’t assume that your polling place is the same as your neighbor’s. They have to draw the district line somewhere, and that might be right next to your home.
- There are fewer early voting locations than Election Day Polling Places. So your Early Voting location might be different than your Election Day polling place.
If you’re not familiar with the building where you’ll vote, look it up on Google Maps, enter the address in the search box in the upper left corner of the screen, then go to the lower right corner of the screen, and click on the person icon to Browse Street View. That way, you’ll know what building you’re looking for.
- Put your address into google maps
—Drag the Pegman in the lower right up to the red pointer, so that the circle below him is over the red pointer. If Google has a picture of the building, it will pop up. So you’ll know you’re in the right place.
Make a plan with someone you like, decide when you’ll vote together, and plan your transportation.
- It’s nice to have a friend to wait with if there’s a line. And if any challenge comes up, it’s good to have an ally.
- If you’re planning to get there by car, check out the parking beforehand.
- If you want to go by public transportation, figure it out in advance.
- Closer to the General Election, we’ll post resources for free Election Day rides.
Add the Election Protection (EP) Hotline’s phone and text numbers to your contacts.
Here are some reasons to call the EP Hotline:
- You arrive and find that your polling place isn’t open.
- They’ve run out of ballots.
- There’s a super-long line.
- One party or another is harassing voters, too close to the polling place (partisan people have to stay a certain distance away.)
- A poll worker is wearing a party or candidate’s T-shirt (they’re supposed to wear neutral clothing).
- For personal problems that impact only you, and not other voters—for example, you forgot your ID but are registered—demand a provisional ballot, then call the EP hotline to learn what you need to do to make it count.
How can I help other students vote?
- Is your school a Voter Friendly High School? If not, lace up your sneakers and organize some activism to ensure that your school adopts permanent pre-registration policies and practices.
- Give our slide presentation about how to register vote in your state. Or, ask the students in your AV club to make a how-to TikTok or Youtube video!
- Learn more about youth voting facts! (Fact: youth are a LOT more motivated than most people think!)
- Civics Center has great facts.
- Circle, a youth voting research Center at Tufts University, researches the big picture, like why it’s important to starting voting as soon as you can.
- MAP, an LGBTQ youth-focused organization, has a bunch of good democracy maps to see what the voting turnouts have been compared to the eligible population by state, for example .
Help Your School Become a VOTER-FRIENDLY School!
Enlist a teacher to help you, and make an appointment to talk to your principal. Here are ten questions to start the conversation.
- Has our school ever served as a polling place for an election? If not, have you ever asked election officials to designate our high school as a polling place?
- Has an election official from our county office ever been invited to give a presentation at our school?
- How do we look for a teacher who might serve as our designated Voter registration Contact? If we can’t find one, what could we do to persuade someone to serve in this role?
- Do the teachers overseeing student government elections teach the actual skills students need, to vote?
- Could our school integrate voter registration in other places than Social Studies class? Can we integrate calendar deadlines into our school website, or Learning Management System?
- Could our coding and math teachers assign problems relating to voting?
- Could our clubs form a Democracy Coalition, and cooperate with the A/V or art club to make how-to-vote videos and informational memes?
- Can students in our state be paid to work as poll workers, on Election Day? If not, has our Administration, or Parent-Teacher Association, or teachers’ union ever talked to our state representatives about passing a bill allowing students to serve as poll workers on Election Day?
- Does our state have student voting ambassadors, like in North Carolina? If not, is that something that we could propose?