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Committee debates lowering preregistration age to 17; Collins’ bill fails on roll call
Summary
Representative Andrew Collins’ bill to allow 17‑year‑olds to preregister to vote drew questions about school registration drives, parental notice and clerks’ workloads; the House State Agencies Committee voted on the measure and the bill failed on the roll call.
Representative Andrew Collins told the House State Agencies Committee that House Bill 1037 would let people who are 17 — rather than the current practice of allowing registration only for those who will be 18 by the next election — preregister to vote and remain in suspense until they reach voting age.
Collins said the change, adopted in some other states, increases youth turnout. “When you extend that preregistration time, you increase the chance that a student is going to encounter an event that will get them excited about politics and government,” Collins told the panel. “It really does have a… improvement in youth voter turnout.”
Committee members pressed Collins on details: whether preregistered 17‑year‑olds could vote in primaries (they could not), whether the change requires a constitutional amendment (yes — this bill would be Amendment 51 and needs two‑thirds in each chamber), workload and cost for county clerks, and whether parental consent would be required. Caroline Cole, a law clerk with the Arkansas Association of Counties, told the committee clerks were “okay with this as long as it’s only applied to 17‑year‑olds.” Collins said clerks already handle suspense flags for people who register before turning 18.
Committee members raised concerns about partisan registration drives in high schools, with Representative Ray asking whether preregistration could increase situations where partisan groups register students on campus. Collins said the practice should not change under the bill, and that clerks already flag preregistrants as ineligible to vote until they turn 18.
Public testimony included Doug Curtis of Lonoke County, who said high school preregistration programs often miss students who would not otherwise register and urged the committee to support the change. Collins moved passage at the close of debate, but the committee’s roll call recorded sufficient opposition and the chair announced the bill had failed.
The committee advanced several other items after HB 1037. Members discussed constitutional, administrative and implementation questions throughout the hearing on how preregistration interacts with current clerk processes and with the two‑thirds vote requirement for a constitutional amendment.
