A novel idea: Teach citizenship to high school students

We propose automatic voter registration for all high school seniors; our goal is the registration of all eligible students before they graduate.

Voters' Ed

By JOHN B. ANDERSON and RAY MARTINEZ III
New York Times, April 6, 2006

High school seniors already have a lot on their minds: SAT's, college acceptance letters, job applications. But our democracy should demand something else of these 18-year-olds: that they prepare to cast their first-ever vote in this fall's Congressional elections.

Unfortunately, all too many young people will graduate from high school without registering to vote and without even taking a class on the basics of voting. We need a new "leave no voter behind" policy.

(For the whole article, go here.)

John B. Anderson, a candidate for president in 1980, is the chairman of FairVote, which promotes fair elections. Ray Martinez III serves on the United States Election Assistance Commission.