• A law authored by state Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara) to encourage young people to vote by allowing voter pre-registration beginning at age 16 has just taken effect.
The law was contingent upon the enactment of VoteCal, California’s new voter registration database, which Secretary of State Alex Padilla certified at the end of September. The law does not change the voting age, which remains 18, but beginning at age 16, Californians can now pre-register to vote at the DMV or through forms obtained at their county registrar of voters. Eventually, Californians will also be able to pre-register to vote online.
This article appears in Oct 6-13, 2016.