Rep. Don Beyer is disappointed, discouraged, borderline verklempt, that young people aren’t voting as regularly as he thinks they should be. His answer? Allow 16 and 17 year olds the ability to “pre-register,” and then automatically putting them on the active voting rolls once they turn 18:
The move is backed by good-government groups, and its sponsors argue that it’s nonpartisan. But it fits into a national effort by Democrats to expand the electorate in 2016 in the face of more stringent voting rules and without President Obama’s galvanizing presence on the ballot.
“I was just amazed at the low voter turnout last November, especially among the younger people; that was just so discouraging,” said Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.), who is introducing the bill Wednesday with Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.).
The legislation would allow 16- and 17-year-olds to fill out voter-registration forms in advance, then be automatically added to voter rolls once they turn 18.
Some states already allow this and the effect on youth voter turnout is “modest.”
And of course, this has nothing to do with good government. It has everything to do with politics:
Voters in Maryland already can preregister to vote at age 16. But in Beyer’s home state of Virginia, which is far more critical battleground for both parties in next year’s presidential election, they cannot. Democratic officials in the state have been working on ways to blunt the effect of new voting restrictions in 2016, using this fall’s state legislative races as a testing ground for local and national efforts.
Run more substantive campaigns? Nope — impossible. Unthinkable. Make voting mandatory? Nice try, comrade. Make voting utterly random — only those chosen by lot will have the ability to vote. Who makes the choice? Well, the AI behind Ashley Madison seemed to be able to keep desperate losers eagerly paying for phone sex, so surely it could be used to pick voters (namely, not the ones in its current database…sorry fellas). Or we could go way back and restrict the franchise to property owners. No skin in the game? Get a job and a house, hippie, and then you can vote.
But we’re probably stuck with ideas that push and pull on the margins of voting, all aimed at screwing the other side.
Maybe what Don Beyer should be doing is proposing lowering the drinking age back to 18.
That would give the kids a real reason to vote.
