Joe Biden Is Paying College Students to Register Voters Before Election

The federal government is paying college students to register voters before the 2024 election, Vice President Kamala Harris said this week.

Students will be paid through the Federal Work-Study Program, Harris said, during a meeting with voting rights leaders on Tuesday.

"We have been doing work to promote voter participation for students," she said. "For example, we have under the Federal Work-Study Program, now allow students to get paid, through Federal Work-Study, to register people and to be nonpartisan poll workers."

This is important for a number of reasons, she said.

"One, to engage our young leaders in this process and activate them in terms of their ability to strengthen our communities," she said. "But also, this is the work that we need to do knowing that so many poll workers have left this work for a variety of reasons."

Both Biden and former president Donald Trump, the front-runner for the Republican nomination, are trying to line up support among young voters ahead of an increasingly likely rematch between the two in November's general election. Their votes could be crucial in contests that hinge on narrow margins.

Republican lawmakers and other conservatives have expressed outrage at taxpayer dollars being used to pay students to register voters. The White House has been contacted for comment via email.

"This is unacceptable," Wisconsin Rep. Bryan Steil wrote on X, formerly Twitter. "Democrats are now trying to use taxpayer dollars for their get-out-the-vote efforts."

Sen. Bill Hagerty, of Tennessee, wrote that Biden had signed Executive Order 14019 "ordering federal govt to use taxpayer $ to mobilize (his) voters."

He added that Stephen Miller, a top aide to Trump, has sought details under the Freedom of Information Act.

"I've sought them in Congress, but Biden is hiding them," Hagerty wrote. "Sounds like the election-year plan is underway."

Jason Snead, executive director of the conservative Honest Elections Project, wrote that the move "is one step away from the Biden administration outright paying people to vote for them."

However, others questioned why conservatives would be upset by more people being registered to vote.

"You know they don't care about democracy when they get upset that more people will be registered to vote," one person wrote.

Recent polling found that one-third of voters aged 18 to 34 are undecided about who they will vote for in the 2024 election.

According to the nonpartisan Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) at Tufts University, young voters are "poised to be a potential force" in the election.

Gen Z youth alone will make up over 40 million potential voters, one-fifth of the overall electorate in 2024, according to the center.

CIRCLE's survey found that 37 percent said they would vote for a Democrat, 25 percent for a Republican, and nearly one-third (31 percent) said they don't yet know who they'll support.

But of the 57 percent of young people who said they were "highly motivated" to vote, some 51 percent prefer a Democratic candidate, 30 percent prefer a Republican, and 16 percent are undecided.