Future Voters San Juan Capistrano Scorecard: How Students Rank

SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO, CA — Student volunteers will be hosting in-person and online voter registration drives at high schools across Orange County as part of High School Voter Registration Week, a civics organization announced Monday.

In conjunction with the effort, The Civics Center also introduced the Orange County Future Voter Scorecard Campaign, measuring the effectiveness of school districts in the county in improving low youth voter registration rates.

"High School Voter Education Week brings the focus to the important role educators and students must play in getting young people's voices heard by helping them register to vote," Laura W. Brill, the center's founder and director, said in a statement. "To assist them, we provide training and tools for voter registration drives, and we have launched our Future Voter Scorecard Campaign in Los Angeles and Orange County to show school districts which ones are succeeding and which ones can improve their voter registration and pre-registration efforts."

According to Census data cited by the center, young people ages 18-24 have the lowest registration and turnout rates for elections. But young people who are registered turn out to vote in presidential elections at high rates, including 86% in November 2020.

In Laguna Beach, 41.1 percent of students who turned 18 in the six months following the November election in 2020, have registered to vote, far outranking other Orange County districts.

1. Laguna Beach: 41.1 percent
2. Tustin USD: 40.6 percent
3. Placentia/Yorba Linda USD: 37.5 percent
4. Saddleback Valley USD: 36.9 percent
5. Fullerton JUHSD: 36.3 percent
6. Los Alamitos USD: 35.5 percent
7. Irvine USD: 35.4 percent
8. Capistrano USD: 35.1 percent
9. Garden Grove USD: 33.3 percent
10. Newport-Mesa USD: 33.1 percent
11. Santa Ana USD: 33 percent
12. Anaheim UHSD: 32.8 percent
13. Orange USD: 31.0 percent
14. Brea Olinda USD: 29.4 percent
15. Huntington Beach UHSD: 27.7 percent

"We are in the process of evaluating school districts beyond Orange County, and we are confident that Orange County is not alone in having exceptionally low levels of voter registration for new 18-year-olds. Unless schools and school districts make serious efforts to improve, young people both in California and across the country will continue to be left out of our democracy, including the midterm elections in 2022," they reported.

The Future Voter Scorecard Campaign ranks student voter registration rates the 15 Orange County school districts that have high schools, based on the number of registered voters who turned 18 in the six months following the November 2020 general election.

The scorecards are distributed via The Civics Center's Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, and include a list of suggested areas for improvement for each school district.

For High School Voter Registration week, hundreds of students and educators attended The Civics Center's free educational programs teaching states' registration laws, and how to organize nonpartisan voter registration drives. The organization provided students with "Democracy in a Box" toolkits to help organizers plan, publicize and succeed in registration and pre-registration drives this week.

According to the group, every district can improve. Here are some resources and suggestions for how to do it.

1. Sign up for a workshop and hold a voter registration drive in your school during High School Voter Registration Week, Sept. 27-Oct. 1. The National Association of Secondary School Principals has placed High School Voter Registration Week on the 2021-2022 NASSP List of Approved Contests, Programs, and Activities for Students.
2. Make sure your district has trained educators who know how to help students register to vote and who can implement effective programs every year. We provide professional development opportunities to give them what they need to know.
3. Help students form a Future Voters Club in your school or use our model agendas to make voter registration part of your club’s activities.
4. Insist that your school district (either the board or superintendent) adopts a voter registration policy to make voter registration part of its school routine.
5. Students and parents can insist that their district and their school circulate information about voter registration on their websites and in-school announcements to students and families. Schools and school districts can post this QR code to link to our portal, which connects to official state voter registration sites. In California, they can obtain additional resources from the Secretary of State’s website.
6. Educators can take our pledge and join our educator’s network to connect with other educators who care about how schools can improve our democracy, and use our checklist to help your school implement effective programs.
7. Cities and community groups can adopt resolutions in support of high school voter registration.
8. To register to vote, visit thecivicscenter.org/register.
9. To learn more, read our report, Future Voters and Gaps in our Democracy at thecivicscenter.org/publications.