On National Voter Registration Day yesterday, Sacramento County Superintendent of Schools David W. Gordon joined California Secretary of State Alex Padilla, Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg, and other local education and civic leaders in a call to action: encourage more high school students to pre-register to vote.
Secretary Padilla announced that 209,577 16- and 17-year-olds in California have pre-registered to vote since a VoteCal voter pre-registration program launched in 2016. He also said more than 104,000 pre-registrants have turned 18 and are eligible to vote in the November election. Students may pre-register to vote online at RegisterToVote.ca.gov.
“Across the state, young people aren’t just pre-registering. They are signing up to be poll workers, hosting mock elections on their school campuses, and volunteering on campaigns,” Padilla said.
Voter registration efforts across Sacramento County this year have included 25 mock elections, ongoing voter registration drives, and school district boards passing resolutions in support of voter registration efforts.
“We’re so proud that in the last two years 32 high schools in our county have registered thousands of 16- and 17-year-olds to vote,” said Superintendent Gordon at the event, held at Leroy Greene Academy in Natomas. “We thank our school districts and their dedicated teachers for helping our young people step up and participate in the democratic process.”
The Sacramento Youth Commission, The League of Women Voters, Sacramento Links, The Greater Sacramento Urban League, and Greater Sacramento NAACP complemented the efforts of Sacramento County, the Secretary of State’s outreach team, and local school districts.