In 2016, a California program was launched to allow 16 and 17 year old residents to “pre-register” to vote; those voter registrations activate automatically on each new voter’s 18th birthday. According to the California Secretary of State, a recent surge in teen registrations has now allowed the program to top the 100,000 mark.
“The impact of recent events is undeniable,” Padilla said. “It's absolutely served as a motivator for young people to pay more attention.”
About 43% of the pre-registrations were California teenagers who chose to be unaffiliated, non-party voters. About 38% chose the Democratic Party and just 10% chose to be ultimately registered as a Republican.
16 and 17 year olds who are both U.S. citizens and California residents can enroll in the program here.
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On this date at Daily Kos in 2003—After Saddam: an Arab Congo:
The US war against Saddam may soon be over, but that may only be the start of the Iraq war. There are millions of guns, rockets and mortars, billions of rounds of ammo, scattered across the country. No one knows who controls them or what they have planned. The Shia want control of their destiny, as do the Kurds, and the Sunnis may not be happy to lose power.
Let's say we fully control Baghdad in the next week or so and the rest of the cities in the next month. What Iraqi government official surrenders? Who runs things? Do we just slide from Saddam rule to American rule?
We have set up clear political goals, remove Saddam, establish democracy, but the problem is that we have no power base to work with.
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