As exciting as it was to see young people turning out in record numbers in Iowa and New Hampshire, there are difficulties ahead for youth turnout. The first contests of the 2008 election held all media and public attention for several weeks, and now, in only three weeks, 22 states are voting in what's now being dubbed Tsunami Tuesday. But now, just as people in these states are beginning to pay attention, particularly young voters, they'll find out that they are too late to register to vote in their states. According to the National Association of Secretaries of States website, of the 22 Tsunami states, 14 have already closed their voter registration with another 5 set to do so within the next week. The only good news for voter advocates is that North Dakota doesn't require any registration at all -- and which many other states could emulate!

Compare this to the magnificent success of election day registration worked in New Hampshire (story here on one young person's successful experience registering to vote at her poll on Election Day in New Hampshire), I was appalled to learn that last Friday, over three weeks before the primary, voter registration in New York closed. I think there’s going to be a great outcry from young people here who find as the primary gets closer that they can’t vote. Even more appalling is that even after Micah Sifry led the outcry that the New York State Board of Elections was woefully out of date with information about registered to vote for the 2008 primary (only information about 2007 primary voting is up) it still hasn’t changed.

Moveon.org released a fantastic tool last week called Vote Poke (not vote puke as I first thought!) It’s a database to find out whether you or a friend are registered to vote. Of course, it’s not much help for people in states like New York, Connecticut, Illinois, California and Oklahoma who want to vote but won't be able to because they missed the ridiculously early deadline!

Voter Registration
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