Burning to vote, but not quite 18 yet? Here’s some good news: there are plenty of ways to get involved, even before your first trip to the polls. Here are some ideas to kick-start your civic engagement!

Register to Vote

If you will be turning 18 before (or on!) Election Day, you can register in advance to ensure a smooth first vote. Be sure to have a look at your sample ballot, available as a PDF file through the State Election Board. This way, you can take your time to read over your ballot, researching candidates and questions as much as you’d like to ahead of time. Then on Election Day, you can sail through the polls in person.

Register 

Volunteer with a Nonprofit.

From Rock the Vote to the League of Women Voters to Head Count and others, national and local nonprofits value the help of teen volunteers to engage the voting public. Whether registering voters at a concert or cultural event, distributing information on foot, or even just stickering kiddos at a parade, your footwork can lead to a more civically engaged populus. Sometimes just asking someone if they’ve registered to vote can get them thinking about how they’d like to impact the next election.

Hit the Campaign Trail.

Contact a political campaign of your choice and volunteer to contribute to a candidate’s success! Some tasks you can expect to take on as a volunteer include stuffing envelopes, planting campaign signage, making phone calls, and inviting your fellow citizens to vote. You might also consider lending your social media savvy to the campaign’s communications team, drafting tweets or posts, taking photographs, and connecting candidates with groups of followers.

Volunteer as an Exit Pollster.

You can interview voters as they leave the polls, collecting data about how people have voted and why they chose to do so. Though the industry is rapidly changing, steering toward digital methods rather than in-person interviews, many news sources still procure polling forecasts from traditional intake methods (a person with a clipboard). If you are interested in becoming an exit poller, the national provider of exit polling is Edison Research. Your county election board may also be able to connect you with opportunities.

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