Project Result
- Number of Users:250+
- Location:Worldwide
- Launch Year:2026
- Current version:1.0
Project Description
Voter registration remains the costliest, most-time consuming and controversial component of any electoral process: for youth engagement, it is often the main structural barrier that prevents a more meaningful participation in elections and in public life. As part of the EU-funded WYDE (Women and Youth in Democratic Engagement) Civic Engagement Research Pillar managed by EPD, EDGE undertook the Youth Voter Registration Costs & Challenges initiative to provide evidence-based insights into youth voter registration barriers. Findings from the studies will inform new initiatives to promote youth participation by enabling the primary and most critical component of the electoral process: the right to be on the electoral lists.
Implementation Challenges
- Create a consistent methodological approach to research and capacity-building
- Cover uniformly very different political realities and very different voter registration practices worldwide
- Identify useful and comparable information about costs of voter registration
- Compare findings from ad hoc-voter registration processes and civil registry-based passive systems
What We Did
We selected 12 Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) that could shed light on the particular practices and challenges of registering first-time and young voters training in very different geopolitical contexts.
Created a framework for research and understanding of common youth voter registration barriers. Trained and worked side-by-side with the 12 organisations to come up with common parameters, compare challenges and formulate meaningful recommendations for future changes.
Opened a discussion on how to ensure a fast and efficient right to participate to elections that transcends voter registration methods.