Before an audience of high school and college students at Loyola Marymount
University in Los Angeles, California Assembly Member Curren Price pitches
his new legislation to allow 16-year-olds to pre-register to vote. (©Brian Frank)

California Democrats are hoping to boost voter turnout by enabling eligible residents as young as 16 to pre-register to vote and by making the registration process easier on everyone.

About 6 million eligible voters in California, or approximately one third of the total, are not registered to vote, according to the office of the secretary of state. In an effort to improve that ratio, California already sends voter registration cards to every resident on his or her 18th birthday, which amounts to about 400,000 a year since the program started in 1999, according to the same office.

The new effort centers on two bills introduced by State Assembly Member Curren Price in December and January, respectively. The bills' supporters contend that barriers to voter registration in the current system contribute to low voter turnout statewide, citing a 2001 commission headed by Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford which concluded that the "registration laws in force throughout the united States are among the world's most demanding... [and are] one reason why voter turnout in the U.S. is near the bottom of the developed world."

"In the U.S., you have to drive down the road and go around all these boulders. That's the democratic process in America because of all these rules for registering to vote," said Steve Hill, the director of the Political Reform Program for the New America Foundation, the nonpartisan think tank that sponsored and helped write both bills.

Currently California residents must be 18 on or before the next election in order to register to vote. Assembly Bill 30 would permit residents to start the registration process even earlier, at 16. The eligible voter's affidavit of registration would be kept in a database and would go into effect on his or her 18th birthday. The idea, according to the bill's sponsors, is that when people get involved in the political process earlier they are more likely to be civically engaged later.

The other bill, AB 106, would make registration automatic for anyone filling out certain Department of Motor Vehicles forms (such as a driver's license application) or filing a personal income tax return in California. A voter registration section would be added to each of the forms, though residents could still opt out.

Hill said the biggest challenge facing the new legislation will be whether it can pass the Assembly's appropriations committee.

"It's a punishing climate for any bill that will cost money," he said, referring to the recent budget crisis and the economic recession, but he added that the odds were good that both bills would pass.

Hill would not give an exact number, but associated costs would at least include the redesign of forms by both the Franchise Tax Board and the DMV, though supporters have claimed elsewhere that these and other costs to the state would be minimal.
 
On Wednesday Price held a youth rally at Loyola Marymount University to garner support for the legislation. 

"In November 2008, we witnessed an extraordinary level of enthusiasm among young people who got engaged in the political process of choosing our national leader for the first time," Price said. "We need to build on that excitement in California and make it easier for persons young or old to register to vote."

The auditorium was less than half full but local politicians, college and high school students, and at least one celebrity presenter got energized enough to make the event feel like a pep rally. At one point, students from two local high schools were vying for loudest cheer.

Actor Kel Mitchell shouted from the stage, "Who wants to be part of the decision-making process? Get excited!" which elicited an eardrum-piercing rallying cry from the audience.

At one point Mitchell, who starred in Nickelodeon's 1990s sketch comedy series "All That" and later in a spin-off called "Kenan and Kel," promised a free autograph to anyone who signed a petition in support of the bills.

Students at the event seemed genuinely excited by the prospect of getting politically involved even earlier.

"If you can get a driver's license at 16, then you should be able to register to vote," said Daniel Gonzalez, a senior at Loyola Marymount University who served as one of the campus organizers and as a presenter for the event.

Kavonni Browning, 18, a senior at City Honors High School in Inglewood, Calif., said her economics class was there on a field trip, but stressed that attendance had not been required. About 15 to 20 of her 30 classmates volunteered to come, she said.

Another student, Kameron Olmedo, 17 and also a senior at City Honors High, said she thought the event was informative. "I was already in favor of [the bills], but now I'm more into it," she said.

Previous steps have been taken both at the federal level to encourage better turnout at elections. In 1993, Congress passed the National Voter Registration Act, also known as the Motor Votor Act, which required states to give people the option to register when they applied for their driver's licenses. AB 106 would be different because it would enable automatic registration at the DMV unless a person opts out. Similar legislation at the federal level has been proposed but never passed.

At least nine other states currently have something like AB 30 in place. In Hawaii and Florida, for instance, the pre-registration age is 16. Connecticut, Iowa, Maine, Wisconsin, Missouri, Oregon and Texas allow pre-registration at 17.

Assembly members Sandré Swanson (D-Alameda), Wesley Chesbro (D-Arcata), Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael), William W. Monning (D-Carmel), Anthony Portantino (D-La Cañada Flintridge), and State Senator Mark DeSaulnier (D-Concord) co-authored the bills.

Price was reelected to the 51st Assembly District in Los Angeles County in 2008. He is currently running for State Senate.