Voting advocates work to get young voters registered ahead of General Election

Voter registration data released last month from the California Secretary of State reveals that young voter registration is at its lowest since 2018.

A Report of Registration released in September revealed of 1.3 million voters in Riverside County, 14.26% of them are 25 or under. Previous Reports of Registrations from the same time frame of September to October show this percentage to be the lowest since 2018. The number of total registered voters has grown since then.

TODEC, a legal center in Coachella, has worked to get young people registered to vote by door-knocking and setting up outreach efforts at high schools and colleges.

Political Science professor Dr. Elizabeth Walker at the College of the Desert is using students to get other students to vote.

One of these effots includes a group of students writing to other college students in another state about the importance of voting.

According to Herbert Gonzalez, booths have also been set up at Cal State University San Bernardino in Palm Desert (CSUSB-PD) to help students learn how much power their vote holds. Gonzalez is the Interim Associate Director for Associate Students at CSUSB-PD.

“Especially in this day and age, to highlight the importance of civic duties and how much power is within our young voters how much power we have in their voice," explained Gonzalez. "And highlighting how making staying civilly active regardless if they’re able to vote or not.”