Young people typically don’t vote much, but advocacy groups hope a bump in pre-registration among teenagers will buck that trend on Nov. 6.

Two years ago, California began letting people ages 16 and 17 pre-register to vote, making it possible for them to cast ballots the day they turn 18.

This year, for a variety of reasons, that program gained traction.

Tens of thousands of California high schoolers pre-registered at rallies held in support of students killed in a mass shooting on Valentines Day in Florida, and new data shows they kept signing up even after the news cycle changed.

In a recent six-month period, voter pre-registration among 16 and 17-year-olds in California more than doubled, from 100,000 in April more than 209,500 by the end of September, according to the Secretary of State’s office.

Some of that occurred earlier this year when the Yolo County Elections Department held educational forums for teens where local public officials talked about the work they and elected officials performed. Teens were reported to have registered in droves following the seminars.

Earlier this week, Yolo County Registrar of Voters Jesse Salinas indicated that there was increased voter registration by college-age individuals at UC Davis. He indicated that numbers were showing an increase over the previous, 2016, election.

Now, more than half of those pre-registrants will be eligible to vote in the Nov. 6 midterm.

The pre-voting age crowd, for now, accounts for just a fraction of the state’s 19 million registered voters. But if they turn out once they’re of age, and if they vote based on registration, they could be helpful for blue-leaning candidates and causes. About 47 percent of the pre-voters are registered with No Party Preference, while 34 percent are Democrat and 9.5 percent Republican.

Though the numbers of pre-registrants are rising, they still represent a sliver of those who could sign up. Roughly 10 percent of the state’s 16 and 17-year-olds are pre-registered, according to Laura Brill, a Los Angeles attorney and a former law clerk to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg who founded The Civics Center, which promotes youth interest in politics and public life.

It’s unclear if they’ll turn up on Nov. 6. If they don’t, they won’t be much different from voters of other ages. About 37.5 percent of all registered voters cast a ballot in California in the June primary. And in mid-term general elections, national turnout hasn’t cracked 50 percent since 1914.

But young people, traditionally, have been even more reluctant than others to cast ballots. In the 2014 general election, Brill noted that less than 10 percent of people ages 18 to 24 voted in California.

“People think of Californians as being very progressive, and we do have laws that encourage people to vote,” Brill said. “But at the same time, there’s this very low turnout, especially for young people.”

Brill suggests that the rising number of pre-registrants could signal the start of a cycle of young voter engagement. “They’ll have communities who hopefully motivate one another to actually show up to the polls.”

Brill said the numbers are low, for now, because there’s not much awareness about the program and many schools don’t have the resources to implement pre-registration.

In 2014, Gov. Jerry Brown signed SB-113 by Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson, D-Santa Barbara, which allowed voter pre-registration beginning at 16 years old once the statewide voter registration database, VoteCal, was certified. That certification came in September 2016, but pre-registration was initially only offered through paper forms.

In April 2017, Secretary of State Alex Padilla launched online pre-registration through RegisterToVote.ca.gov.

“It provides a framework for people to do it, but it doesn’t provide its own mechanism to actually make preregistration and voter registration happen,” Brill said.

California is one of 14 states that allow pre-registration. And while the numbers to date are low, the state is well ahead of where many others were at this stage of their pre-registration programs, according to Marcia Godwin, a professor of public administration at the University of La Verne.

“The few studies on voter pre-registration show that participation depends on outreach efforts and when there are critical elections,” Godwin said, via email. “Participation is usually much higher going into presidential elections.”

It appears that states that allow voter pre-registration have slightly higher turnout rates, Godwin said, pointing to a study of Florida’s program by Professors John Holbein and D. Sunshine Hillygus.

The research also suggests young people who vote also might become more active citizens in other ways.

“The turnout is lower for younger residents, but those who do participate feel that their views are being heard for the first time and they are more likely to get involved in other civic activities,” Godwin said.

In addition to the Florida study, which focused on the effect of pre-registration from 2000-12 — before the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida that led to nationwide student protests — Holbein said they did a nationwide analysis that looked for changes in voter turnout before and after preregistration laws came into effect. They compared those changes to changes in turnout over the same time period in states that did not have preregistration.

They found that pre-registration increased turnout among young people by about 3-6 percentage points, which was about the same as the effect found in Florida, Holbein said, via email.

“This is a considerable effect considering that young people nationwide vote at rates much lower than older people. In Midterms, the turnout of young people ages 18-29 hovers around 20 percent,” Holbein said. “In Presidential elections, the numbers aren’t much better — youth turnout is only around 30-40 percent. There was some evidence that pre-registration brought in people to the electorate who wouldn’t have registered/voted otherwise.”

Alex Farrington, who runs Our Lives, Our Vote, a national group aimed at boosting youth registration, believes pre-registered students are extremely likely to show up at the polls.

“One of the main things about it is that it creates a voter for life,” Farrington said.

Related Articles California teens pumped to vote — but not as Democrats or Republicans The program was launched by gun control advocates and liberal organizations in response to the walk-outs, marches and demonstrations that followed the Parkland shooting. It is active in 10 states, including California, where candidates deemed to be aligned with the National Rifle Association appear on the ballot.

“These students are engaged,” Farrington said of pre-registrants.

“They’re asking really critical questions. They want to know more, and they’re not waiting for someone to hand them information.”