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Morning Edition
Cathy Wurzer and Gracie Stockton

Students, secretary of state partner to pre-register young voters

More than 135 Minnesota high schools take part in National Voter Registration Day events

A person stands and smiles outside
Markus Wessman, 17, is the founder and executive director of The Youth Voter Project, a student-run organization working to register and pre-register Minnesota's youth to vote.
Courtesy Markus Wessman

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Tuesday is National Voter Registration Day — and for the first time, more than 135 Minnesota high schools are taking part in an initiative to get 16- and 17-year-old students to pre-register to vote.

With less than 49 days till the election, voter registration deadlines are fast approaching for many states and U.S. territories. In Minnesota, you can register in person up to Election Day, but the online and mail registration deadlines are Oct. 15. However, new laws enacted in the last two years have made it easier than ever to vote; Minnesotans are automatically registered to vote when getting or renewing their driver’s license and those age 16 to 17 can now pre-register to vote.

“That gets them in the pipeline,” Michael Wall, youth voter outreach specialist with the Minnesota Secretary of State Office, told MPR News. He said students who pre-register are more aware of politics around them and have better turnout once they become eligible to actually cast a ballot, which nationwide trends suggest.

The power of pre-registration is what drives 17-year-old Markus Wessman, executive director of The Youth Voter Project and Wayzata High School student body president, to engage his peers about politics. He founded the entirely student-run nonpartisan group last December, following the passage of Minnesota’s Democracy for the People Act.

“I’ve always been interested in politics, and at a certain point, I decided that I just couldn’t sit by and let this election pass me by,” Wessman told MPR News.

Wall planned Tuesday’s event alongside the Minnesota DFL, Republican Party of Minnesota, Legal Marijuana Now Party and League of Women Voters of Minnesota. In two, 30-minute sessions, students and teachers attest to why it’s important to cast a ballot, Secretary of State Steve Simon speaks briefly and Wall demystifies the pre-registration process while helping students sign up. Schools that couldn’t make the hybrid event can register and get access to the recordings. Wessman is one of the speakers.

Civic engagement doesn’t start and end with voting and youth who can’t participate in the 2024 general election can still make a difference politically, Wessman asserted. Pre-registering, volunteering with a campaign and signing up to be a student election judge are all good options.

“The fourth option is you can start your own project, kind of like I did, and there are so many opportunities out there,” Wessman said. And if you feel passionate about something that maybe isn’t being covered at a statewide scale, if you want to start something, you’ve just got to go for it.”

Michael Wall, with the Secretary of State office, leads statewide push to pre-register young, would be voters

Wessman and Wall both said they’ve gotten a positive reception when encouraging students to pre-register, and Wall hoped that will prove true during Tuesday’s event.

“It’s not mandatory and it’s not meant to be,” he said. “It’s an opportunity to take the anxiety out of some of the process whenever school helps guide or offer opportunities for civic engagement.”

No matter your age, learn more about pre-registering and automatic voter registration on the Minnesota Secretary of State’s website.