Parental voter education and assistance: Research shows that young adults are more likely to vote if a parent educates them about the voting process, and even more likely if a parent is an active voter themselves. Serving as a good role model for your children is critical to developing healthy, lifelong voting habits.
A few points about parents and children when it comes to voting include:
- A parent cannot register or preregister their child to vote or forge their child’s signature on a registration form or absentee ballot application. Voters with disabilities may legally request assistance in completing election forms and ballots.
- A parent is allowed to return their child's completed election forms to the clerk's office when asked to do so by the child.
- Parents are free to discuss their political views with their children, except when they are within 100 feet of an early voting site or polling place, or inside an early voting site or polling place. Attempting to influence another person's vote, even if they are a family member, is considered electioneering and is against the law.
What parents should know about voter registration: Parents should be aware that if their child registers or preregisters to vote at a different address, such as their campus address, it also updates their child’s address of record for their Michigan driver’s license or state ID. This may potentially impact address dependent insurance coverage, and a parent’s ability to claim their child as a dependent for taxes.
Teens may preregister to vote when they are 16 years old in Michigan and do not need parental approval to do so. They must be 18 by Election Day in order to vote. Once a minor turns 18, the choice of where and how to vote is legally up to the voter.
Clerks who register young adults are not required to contact a parent for permission to register a young voter in their jurisdiction. Students who are registered to vote at their campus address always have the option to revert to their hometown address after the election.
