National automatic voter registration appears to be off the table, but men 18 and 25 will be automatically registered for military conscription, better known as “the draft,” beginning in December.
This according to the Selective Service System (SSS) which maintains the national database of men who can be forced to serve in the military during wartime. The automatic registration system was mandated in December 2025 as part of the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act, passed by the Republican led Congress and signed by U.S. President Donald Trump.
Men 18 to 25 are already required to register for military conscription and notify the Selective Service of any changes in address within 10 days. Failure to do so can result in criminal and other penalties. This would make the system automatic, but still require notification of registration changes.
Conscription has faced strong opposition throughout American history from prominent figures like Daniel Webster, who once wrote: “A free government with an uncontrolled power of military conscription is the most ridiculous and abominable contradiction and nonsense that ever entered into the heads of men.”
In the United States, military conscription has been used by the U.S. federal government in six conflicts: the American Revolutionary War, the Civil War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. All of which saw opposition, especially from religious groups and other conscientious objectors.
The current draft, the nation’s first peace time conscription, was created in 1940 through the Selective Training and Service Act. From 1940 until 1973, during both peacetime and periods of conflict, men were drafted to fill the U.S. Armed Forces with soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines.
In August 1965, the Congress enacted a law to broaden draft card violations to punish anyone who “knowingly destroys, knowingly mutilates” his draft card. Subsequently, at least 46 men were indicted for burning their draft cards at various rallies, and four major court cases were heard, resulting in the upholding the law. .
It’s been estimated that about 210,000 Americans were accused of draft offenses during the Vietnam War with estimates of 60,000 to 100,000 leaving the US. Others avoided the draft through various elite connections or deferments, including Donald Trump, who despite his claim to have been an athlete at the time, received five draft deferments: four for college education and one in 1968 for bone spurs in his heels.
Active conscription in the United States ended in January 1973, and the U.S. Armed Forces moved to an all-volunteer military (excepting draftees called up through the end of 1972). Many historians point to resistance to the draft as one of the causes of the U.S.’s retreat from Vietnam in 1975, ending the Vietnam War.
Today all male U.S. citizens, even those residing abroad, and all male immigrants, whether documented or undocumented, are required to register with the Selective Service System within 30 days of their 18th birthday.
They must notify the Selective Service within ten days of any changes to any of the information they provided on their registration cards, such as a change of address. Women are not required to register.
Failure to register can result in denial of federal employment, federal job training programs, citizenship if an immigrant, and criminal prosecution.
The War Powers Resolution of 1973 (also known as the War Powers Act) is a federal law intended to check the president’s power to commit the U.S. to an armed conflict without congressional consent.
Passed over a presidential veto, it requires the President to consult with Congress “in every possible instance” before deploying troops, and to notify Congress within 48 hours of deploying troops.
It limits engagement to 60–90 days without authorization, unless authorized by Congress, though this has never been enforced. The ongoing Iran War began with attacks by the United States and Israel on Iran on February 28, 2026, including the assassination the Iranian leader Ali Khamenei.
New York Almanack is reporting on Donald Trump’s regime impacts in New York State, but we can’t do it without your help. Please support this work.
Read more about New York State military history.
Illustrations, from above: Selective Service registration card of Muhammad Ali, then using his birth name Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. (provided by Christie’s Auction House); a 1780 caricature of a press gang conscripting (drafting) American men into the British Army; and an anti-draft meeting held by women in New York City in 1917 (National Archives).
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