The state does offer a head start. Sixteen- and 17-year-olds can preregister so their voter status kicks in automatically the moment they turn 18. It’s a smart policy on paper. In practice, only about 11% of eligible teens have taken advantage of it, according to data from the Civics Center.

The gap isn’t for lack of interest. Kylie Barker, a young voter from Merced who turned 18 in 2020, missed her first opportunity to cast a ballot — not because she didn’t care, but because no one had ever walked her through the process. Her story, cited in state legislative testimony, captures a problem that shows up again and again across California high schools: students who want to participate in democracy but were never taught the mechanics of how.

Sacramento lawmakers have twice tried to fix this, and twice the effort has stalled.

In 2024, then-Assemblymember Eloise Gómez Reyes introduced legislation requiring public schools to make sure every student receives clear information about voter preregistration before finishing 11th grade. Districts would have had the option of partnering with nonpartisan civic groups to help deliver that instruction. The bill made it through both the Assembly and Senate, only to be vetoed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, who argued that schools already had the tools to provide that information without a new state mandate.

That argument hasn’t aged well. Schools have technically had the ability to educate students about preregistration for years, and the result is an 11% participation rate. If voluntary compliance were sufficient, the numbers would already reflect it.

Reyes, now serving in the state Senate, brought the idea back this year as Senate Bill 316, the High School Voter Registration Act. It moved further than its predecessor, clearing the full Senate and passing unanimously through the Assembly’s Education Committee, then its Elections Committee. But the bill ultimately stalled in the Assembly Appropriations Committee’s suspense file — a legislative holding pen where bills often vanish without a public vote or explanation.

The timing couldn’t be worse. National polling paints an unsettling picture of where public trust in democratic institutions currently stands. Pew Research Center has found that roughly one in three Americans expresses openness to authoritarian leadership, whether through a strongman figure or military rule. Separate research from the Public Religion Research Institute shows nearly one in five Americans believe political violence can be justified under certain circumstances.

At the same time, voting rights advocates point to a wave of new restrictions nationwide. The Brennan Center for Justice has tracked at least nine states — along with federal actions from the Trump administration — that have introduced additional barriers to voting in recent years.

None of this suggests that voter registration alone will heal what’s straining American democracy. But a public that understands how to register, how to cast a ballot and why that act matters remains one of the most basic safeguards a republic has.

California already treats civic knowledge as essential. State law requires every high school student to complete a semester of American government and civics before graduating. Students learn how legislation becomes law. SB 316 simply asked that they also learn how to become voters.

Benjamin Franklin is famously said to have described America as “a republic, if you can keep it.” Keeping it has always required deliberate effort — civic knowledge passed down and reinforced, generation after generation. Left untaught, that knowledge fades, and so does the practice of self-governance.

If California wants its 250th anniversary to mark genuine progress rather than a missed opportunity, lawmakers should bring SB 316 back for a vote, pass it, and put it on the governor’s desk. This time, it deserves his signature.

Original source: CalMatters

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