Political reform targets young voters in Maryland: I recently was invited to testify to a State Senate Committee in Maryland about a new bill introduced by Jamie Raskin, a state Senator with a long track record of championing youth engagement.

The Raskin bill would improve the state voter registration process in Maryland by allowing anyone 16 or older to register to vote, although they still can't vote until they are 18.

The point of this is to ensure that high schools can conduct effective voter registraiton drives, that the DMV can actually register all young people when they come in for the licenses, etc.

History shows that young people who are registered to vote turn out to vote. Indeed, I sometimes hear a criticism of Rock the Vote that, "you register all these young people to vote, but they don't turn out!"

That's total nonsense.

Consider the 2004 election. We went back and checked the state voter files from 2004 and found that for the young people who used our online registration tool and sent it in properly, 80% turned out to vote. 80%!

That's a bit higher, but in the same range, than the share of young people who vote if they are regsitered.

When people register to vote, they turn out to vote. Its just a fact. For more information about this, read through CIRCLE's youth voter analyses.

Now, having said that: I think one of the most urgent initiatives for political reform is requiring the state to register people to vote automatically. See the next post for developments on that front in MI and MN.