Idaho, as conservative a state as any, has long had same-day registration. That Idahoans haven’t voted for a Democratic president since 1964 yet value same-day registration is proof that there are openings for youth groups to move the voting accessibility needle in red states too. While national Republicans may have no interest in making it easier for young people to vote, college-age conservatives do have something at stake. Voting is difficult for them too. And pushing Republicans to appeal to a younger electorate could exert a moderating influence on the party.

But even now, spreading same-day registration in red states isn’t a pipe dream: Ohio’s Republican secretary of state, Frank LaRose, is pushing for automatic voter registration, which would “opt in” Ohioans when they visit state agencies like the D.M.V. But passing same-day registration alongside automatic voter registration would help catch the thousands of young voters to whom those interactions only occasionally apply. Given their high stakes status as a swing state , Ohioans should push to include same-day registration in Mr. LaRose’s plan.

A familiar refrain is that the solution to low youth turnout isn’t a new law, but for young people to buck up and register the old-fashioned way. But as Anne Helen Petersen recently argued in an essay for BuzzFeed News, voting is just one of many important yet tedious tasks that millennials often find themselves constitutionally resistant to completing, like renewing passports, filing for tax rebates or submitting insurance reimbursement forms. While others attribute this inaction to simple laziness, Ms. Peterson urges us to more empathetically see it as part of the millennial burnout that researchers are documenting.

Whether you think her thesis is true or hogwash, if you believe in strengthening democracy the implication is the same: In an overworked society with young people increasingly accustomed to app-enabled shortcuts, states need to make voting more accessible using every lever available. In an ideal world, the lure of civic duty would be enough. In the real world, voters procrastinate, miss deadlines and find it hard to follow up amid their busy week.

Simple narratives about responsibility also miss that voter registration is especially burdensome for young people, who often relocate for new jobs and school just as they become eligible to cast a ballot. That problem is compounded for low-income young people, who face underemployment and housing insecurity, and are more often people of color.

Ultimately, the precise mix of factors driving low youth registration remains unclear. Surely, a lack of trust in electoral politics, burnout and laziness as well as structural and racial barriers all play some sort of role, meaning that no reform is a silver bullet. Still, the data now clearly show allowing for registering on voting days is a clear opportunity to give everyone a full chance to participate.

As history both distant and recent has shown us — in movements for civil rights, against colonialism, and for the environment and gun control — young people have been a crucial presence at the political vanguard. Increasing youth turnout by instituting same-day registration would improve both parties, forcing them to grapple with the issues that matter most to this country’s newest generations. There’s no good reason, nonpartisan or not, to wait.

Charlotte Hill (@hill_charlotte) is on the board of FairVote and a Ph.D. candidate at UC Berkeley. Jake Grumbach (@JakeMGrumbach) is a fellow at the Center for the Study of Democratic Politics at Princeton University.

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