Promote Policies to Support Youth Engagement

What Can Policymakers Do?

• Create a state-wide youth bill of rights. Identifying and articulating the basic rights of children and youth, through a youth-led process, is another way state policymakers can engage youth in policy and planning decisions. A youth bill of rights raises awareness about youth issues and provides a way for young constituents to be engaged. A youth bill of rights can be broad and encompass issues related to all youth or can be used to ensure the rights of youth in subpopulations, such as young people in the care of the child welfare or juvenile justice systems. The Maine Youth in Care Bill of Rights provides youth in care with a resource they can use to advocate for themselves, to make sure that their rights are being honored and upheld and to improve the foster care system for current and future foster youth. These rights are defined in Maine law, through state policies and in statements of belief.
• Support policies to encourage youth voting and increase access. Eighteen- to twenty-nine-year-olds move about three times as often as older voters, often times to attend college or for a new job. By streamlining the process for youth voters to re-register and vote and by promoting voter awareness around state rules and regulations, policymakers ensure young voter participation is maintained or increased.[1] Minnesota has same-day registration, allowing young people to register and vote on the same day, ensuring they are able to participate.[2] Online voter registration, which has been implemented by 10 states, simplifies the registration process by allowing citizens to submit their registration applications to their Secretary of State’s office using the internet; this accessibility is particularly important for reaching youth voters, as recent Pew Research Center research shows that 95 percent of 18- to 34-year-olds go online, and online registrants are disproportionately younger. Not only do voters who register online vote at higher rates than those who register through other methods, but online registration saves states money—Oregon, for example, used online registration at a cost of less than $1 per voter registration transaction, compared to $7.67 per transaction by other methods in the 2008 election.[3]