Do You Have Your Ticket?

by Barb Laimins, Illinois Civics Teacher Mentor Liaison

In 2016, 1,300,627,644 people bought tickets to a movie theater according to the Motion Picture Association of America. POLITICO reports there are currently 200,081,377 registered voters in the United States. While this is a somewhat imperfect analogy, it is remarkable that more people paid for a ticket to see a 2-hour movie at the theater than obtained their “free ticket” that would allow them to vote in just a few minutes. National Voter Registration Day was established in hopes of encouraging everyone to obtain their “free ticket” to participate in the political theater of our Democracy.

The National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) established the first National Voter Registration Day on September 25, 2012. Currently, thousands of organizations join together on the fourth Thursday of September to register voters. NVRD is a day to set aside political differences and join in celebrating our Democracy by registering to vote.


This year, on September 26th, schools and civic organizations throughout the country mobilized to hold events to provide citizens the information and the opportunity to register/update their voter registration. Democracy Schools and Civic Mentors throughout Illinois held registration drives at their schools. School based voter registration events are extremely important due to the passage of the “Suffrage at 17” legislation. The legislation provides an opportunity for the youth of Illinois to develop the civic engagement habits which are essential to healthy democracy. The Illinois League of Women Voters chapters encouraged voter registration by disseminating registration information at commuter train stations and social media.


Hopefully, voter registration efforts won’t be limited to this one day a year. The new Automatic Voter Registration Act will be implemented in phases over the next year. Therefore, voter registration efforts need to continue. Teachers can become voter registrars by having their principals contact their local Election Commission. Community members can become a voter registrar by joining a civic organization recognized by the Illinois State Board of Elections. Everyone can encourage online voter registration at https://www.elections.il.gov/votinginformation/register.aspx.

Let’s make sure everyone has their “free ticket” to participate in our Democracy.

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