Activities Voter Registration 1. Read the article Voter Registration, paying special attention to the last section Will Reforms Increase Turnout?. Do you think our voting system could be improved? Draft a set of specific proposals for improving the way Americans register and vote. Ask your local representative, someone from the local Board of Elections, or someone from the local chapter of the League of Women Voters to come and discuss your proposals with your class. 2. According to the article Voter Registration, what groups of people are prevented from voting? Do you agree that these people shouldn’t be allowed to vote? Why or why not? 3. Look at your local newspaper for information on how, when, and where to vote. Based on what you find would you know what you had to do to register and vote? If you registered now, would you have registered far enough in advance to be able to vote on election day? Does the newspaper list polling places? How do people in your community vote who are handicapped or have difficulty getting to the polls? 4. Look at the Federal Election Commission’s statistics for voter turnout in 1998. As a class, define the following: voter turnout voting-age population mean median Why do you think voter turnout was so low in 1998? Find the high, low, mean, and median for “percent of voting-age population registered,” and “percent voting.” Is there a connection between how many people are registered and how many actually vote? Find the percents for your state. How does your state compare? Why do you think some states have such a high number of registered voters? Why do you think some states have such low voter turnout? Think about such factors as: number of urban areas and mean age of the population. What other factors contribute to the number of people registered to vote? You can find out what’s involved in registering to vote in various states by going to the Project Vote Smart web site. 5. Compare voter turnout in the United States to other countries by looking at Voter Turnout Comparisons on the Center for Voting and Democracy website. Why do you think the United States has such low voter turnout compared to other democracies? Do some research in your school library into the election systems of two or three other countries listed-are there penalties for people who don’t vote? Is Election Day a national holiday? Based on your findings, should the United States change the voter registration and polling process? >>Brush Up on Your Voting Smarts >>Voting & Youth Citizenship >>Voter Registration >>Campaign Reform Conversation | Voting | *Activities* | Resources Online Conversations | Law, Diversity, and the Vote