• Facebook
  • Google Plus
  • RSS Feed
  • Twitter

Menu

Skip to content
  • About
  • Staff
  • Contact
  • Support
  • Advertise
  • FAQ
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Service
Header image

Times of San DiegoLogo

Local News and Opinion for San Diego

Menu

Skip to content
  • All
  • Politics
  • Crime
  • Business
  • Sports
  • Education
  • Arts
  • Military
  • Tech
  • Life
  • Opinion
Search Thousands of San Diego Jobs
  • MarketInk: El Cajon Councilman Retires from Marketing Career to Pursue Forensic Genealogy
  • San Diego Police Search for Gunman Who Shot Man in Back on Broadway
  • Arson Suspected as Early-Morning Fire Destroys Room at Mission Bay Drive Hotel
  • Parts of Mission Valley Covered in Heavy Smoke Due to Fire in Homeless Camp
  • Woman Suffers Brain Bleed After Scooter Hits Sidewalk Crack in Ocean Beach

Home » Opinion » This Article

Opinion: We Can Fight Gerrymanding by Simply Registering More Young Voters

Posted by Editor on July 7, 2019 in Opinion | 128 Views
| Comments | Leave a Comment
Share This Article:
Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail
Alex Padilla
California Secretary of State Alex Padilla at a high school voter registration event in Vacaville in 2016. Photo courtesy Padilla’s office

By Laura W. Brill | Special for CALmatters

The Supreme Court’s ruling that upheld partisan gerrymandering as a political practice for which there is no federal judicial remedy will be taken as a green light by some state legislatures to draw political maps to favor the party in power.

Support Times of San Diego's growth
with a small monthly contribution

Become a supporter

Even if that is not a risk to us in California, the case should serve as a wake-up call for those of us who believe courts should protect our democracy by striking down laws that are designed to interfere with the effective exercise of the right to vote.

Partisan gerrymandering is, by definition, a practice in which officials draw the maps for election districts  to entrench the political power of their party and to diminish the power of citizens who favor their opponents.

District maps that are a product of partisan gerrymandering can concentrate political opponents in a small number of districts or can divide into multiple districts communities of opponents who would otherwise act together to elect candidates of their choice. State legislatures controlled by Democrats and Republicans have engaged in partisan gerrymandering.

Opinion logoPartisan gerrymandering undermines our democracy because it can keep a party out of power even if that party has majority support in the affected area.

If courts and state legislatures won’t give us fair elections, we have to do the work ourselves to make our democracy work better.

The single biggest thing every one of us can do to accomplish that result is register as many eligible citizens to vote as possible and turn them out to vote.  In particular, we need to get young people registered to vote and make sure they turn out.

Approximately 3.5 million students graduated from high school this year. Another 3.5 million will graduate by next summer. In California, more than 400,000 young people turn 18 every year. We need their participation and engagement now more than ever.

Laura Brill
Laura Brill

In most parts of the country, the infrastructure is not in place to make sure young people register to vote. In 2017, the Pew Charitable Trusts reported that fewer than 10% of Americans they surveyed were asked to register to vote at school or as part of a class.

Many school districts have no budget, no training and no plan to promote voter registration. California and about a dozen other states allow students to preregister to vote at age 16. Those who preregister are automatically registered to vote when they turn 18.

Only 14% of 16- and 17-year-olds in California are preregistered. Other states that offer preregistration, such as Oregon and Colorado have rates that hover around 30%, double California’s rate.

What keeps young people from voting cannot be explained by stereotypes about teenage apathy. Real structural obstacles exist. Some are easy to overcome. Others are not.

One easy step in overcoming the barriers to registration is simply asking students to register to vote. Better yet, students can ask each other. We know this works.

In Southern California, peer-to-peer voter registration drives have led to hundreds of registrations and preregistrations each in schools from Compton to San Clemente. The main ingredients for success are purpose and planning. Add clipboards, voter registration forms, posters, stickers and a candy bowl, and a drive is good to go.

Legislation introduced earlier this year, Assembly Bill 773 by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez of San Diego, would require school districts to offer more meaningful access to and information about voter registration for high school students and provides a mechanism for reimbursement for the costs of implementing a meaningful program.

Laws like this and the energy of students who care about their future have the power to help promote fair elections. If the courts will not protect us, maybe our high schools will.

Laura W. Brill is a lawyer in Los Angeles and the founder and director of The Civics Center, a nonprofit, nonpartisan project of Community Partners, dedicated to building the foundations of youth civic engagement and voter participation in high schools. She wrote this commentary for CALmatters.

 

Opinion: We Can Fight Gerrymanding by Simply Registering More Young Voters was last modified: July 8th, 2019 by Editor

>> Subscribe to Times of San Diego’s free daily email newsletter! Click here

Follow Us:
Facebooktwitterrss
Posted in Opinion | Tagged Assembly Bill 773, CALmatters, elections, gerrymandering, high school, Laura Brill, Lorena Gonzalez, Voter Registration
Search Thousands of San Diego Jobs

Get Times of San Diego by Email

Our free newsletter is delivered at 8 a.m. daily.


Most Popular Today

  • California Democrats Liken Newsom Recall Effort to Extremist ‘Coup’ California Democrats Liken Newsom Recall Effort to Extremist ‘Coup’ 1,010 views
  • UCLA Scientist: 'Scientifically Undeniable' That Humanity Faces '6th Major Extinction' UCLA Scientist: ‘Scientifically Undeniable’ That Humanity Faces ‘6th Major Extinction’ 780 views
  • Opinion: Mob Violence at the U.S. Capitol Echoes the Fall of Republican Rome Opinion: Mob Violence at the U.S. Capitol Echoes the Fall of Republican Rome 590 views
  • New CDC Data Shows How San Diego County Ranks Nationally in the Pandemic New CDC Data Shows How San Diego County Ranks Nationally in the Pandemic 560 views
  • 2 San Diego Small Businesses Share in $750 Million Cluster of Navy Contracts 2 San Diego Small Businesses Share in $750 Million Cluster of Navy Contracts 410 views

©®2021 Times of San Diego LLC

Menu

  • About
  • Staff
  • Contact
  • Support
  • Advertise
  • FAQ
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Service