Starting this month, Minnesotans turning 18 can expect a greeting  from the Secretary of State’s office. It’s more than a birthday wish; it’s a reminder to register to vote.

Secretary of State Steve Simon said the first batch of about 10,200 reminders will be mailed this month, with a similar number scheduled each month through September.

The goals are to engage young people in the civic process and to shorten registration lines at election time.

To get the names, the state uses the multi-state Electronic Registration Information Center, to compare Minnesota’s voter rolls to Minnesota’s driver’s license database, the Social Security Administration’s death information, and other states’ voter rolls.

In addition to those turning 18, anyone of voting age who recently received a Minnesota driver’s license will get the registration reminders.

Simon says: “This will not only help encourage pre-election registration and decrease wait times on Election Day, but by contacting voters on an ongoing basis we can help ease the volume of voter registration applications received by counties in the last few weeks leading up to the election.”