Many college students go though the annual ritual of filling out their FAFSA forms. For those of you piling up debt like me, you know that filing for financial aid also registers you for the Selective Service, or the draft. It’s hard to ignore that our country is at war. Many students may be more fully realizing the power of checking that little box on their financial aid forms.
Now I don’t care if you are for or against this war, but I do care about young people having a say in government. The federal government should make it easier for us to have that say because we need all the help we can get. Youth voter turnout in this last election was pathetic.
Just as students register for the draft through their FAFSA forms, so too could students simply check a box that could authorize the government to send them a voter registration card in the mail. Wouldn’t it be a great vote of confidence if the federal government added a way for young people to register to vote this way? I think a FAFSA voter registration opportunity would greatly improve college student voter turnout.
Tim Young
Graduate Student