Tuesday marked a milestone for local students at Piedmont Virginia Community College, members turning 18 in the demographic group sought after by civic engagement groups.
The Pew Research Center predicts that younger generations, which make up the majority of the electorate, will not cast the majority of the votes in November.
CAMPUS VOTER: “So, we’re trying to reverse that — because voting is one of the more important rights that we have as citizens – so we’re just trying to get people out there and voting.”
A big step in making that possible is through online voter registration — Jake Washburne, the general registrar of Albemarle County, said this online option has allowed more than 25,000 Virginia residents to register in 2018 so far.
WASHBURNE: “We’ve seen just a tremendous increase in the number of voter registration transactions from two or three years ago…mainly because of the online option.”
The benefit of greater accessibility is just one more reason to register to vote — voter registration ends Oct. 15 and the general election is Nov. 6.