as we prepare to elect a new commander-in Chief no Voice May matter more than that of the younger generation 41 million gen zers will be eligible to vote in this year's election that's according to the Center for information research on civil learning and engagement they also say about 45% of them will be votes of color this generation has the potential to influence major change for young people and for the even younger generation who are not yet eligible to vote they are still ways to get involved in the process this morning we are joined by Elizabeth clay Roy the CEO of the civic education nonprofit generation citizen good morning good morning so your organization is launching a campaign to inform young people about the voting process can you tell me a little bit about that thank you so much I'd love to tell you about rise vote which stands for register inform support and Empower voters the toolkit we've created includes a guide on voter registration and pre-registration has election deadlines and guidance on creating a voting plan and students of all ages and teachers alike are encouraged to host voter registration drives in their schools and in their communities 18 States including New York and Washington DC allow teens to pre-register to vote beginning at 16 Why Should teens start that process now absolutely so over eight million newly eligible youth are reg eligible to vote and it's essential that they register before the deadline including if they are 17 now but will be 18 in November they should register right now um it is important to register to vote um and pre-register early because as we know um the year that one turns 18 there is a lot going on young people are busy with um with school with jobs maybe with moves and and um new exciting things happening as well as if you turn 18 in the year of a local election or a special election there's not as much attention to voter registration as there is now as we have a major presidential election so if young people register now when you're 16 or 17 as soon as you turn 18 your status with the state will go from pre-register to register and all you have to do is show up on Election Day um and cast your ballot so what else can young people do to get involved in the process it's a great question because there are ways to get involved in one's community and democracy 365 days a year at generation citizen we partner with uh schools across the country um to engage young people in Civic h action and um participation while they're in their um High School Civics classes and young people begin with identifying an issue that matters to them um and then work with their peers to do research hear both sides of the issue and then create an action plan young people care about issues like the cleanliness of our streets and communities availability of mental health support quality of nutrition in schools and issues of of safety um and so as young people listen to each other they can together reach out to local elected officials and invite them for a town hall they can write a letter to the um the newspaper to express their issues um and of course they can testify at public hearings um and go visit their elected officials offices so we encourage them in these ways and so many others um can visit generation citizen.org to see many ways that young people can be involved as individuals as a group um or by getting involved in elections so for those younger Americans looking to pre-register to vote what is the deadline so in it differs state by state so it's important based on where you live that you take a look at what the deadline is where you live in New York the deadline to um mail in or an in-person registration is no later than October 26th so that's an incredibly important date for all New Yorkers can head to our website to um download the toolkit um and of course can register to vote online um and um should register as quickly as possible so um everyone has an opportunity to have their voices heard Elizabeth clay Roy CEO of the civic education nonprofit generation citizen thank you thank you so much and stay with CBS News New York for all of our election coverage and you can head over to our website CBS new york.com