News

Exactly How Long It Takes To Register To Vote

Sep. 23, 2014

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In case you didn't get the memo, Tuesday is Voter Registration Day! This is a very, very important day for Millennials everywhere, because for the first time in history, there is a generation even bigger than the Baby Boomer generation — and it’s us! Can you imagine the difference that would be made if every Millennial 18 and older voted?

In addition to being the largest generation, we Millennials are also the most diverse — 43 percent of us are non-white. With all that diversity, and by sheer numbers alone, just think about the impact your vote could make on this midterm election, or the next presidential election.

During the last midterm election in 2010, there was only a 24 percent turnout from Millennials. Just two years later, in 2012’s presidential election, that number was just 50 percent. As Ashley Spillane, Executive Director of Rock the Vote tells Bustle, Millennials really have “no excuse,” not to vote. “It’s OK to have multiple interests, like watching Keeping Up with the Kardashians, but also being politically aware at the same time.”

“Over 90 percent of Millennials are online and yet trying to register online is only available in 20 states,” Spillane says. To fix that, Spillane and her team at Rock the Vote have set up an online process so that everyone who’s 18 and older can register to vote, no matter which state they currently reside in.

By just logging on to Rockthevote, you’re already halfway there. Once you plug in your name and choose your state, you’re taken to a registration form that takes just a couple minutes to fill out. Then, with one click of the green “Register” button — voila! — you’re registered. And what a good feeling it is.

If you’re still thinking it’s going to be some long and arduous thing to get registered, then let me break it down for you: Here are the 13 simple things that still take longer than registering to vote.