Aarykah Navarro/ THE RIDER GRAPHIC
The Selective Service System will switch from manual to automatic registration for men aged 18-25 years old by December, according to its website.
Last December, President Donald Trump signed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026 into law, mandating the automatic SSS registration.
“Almost all male U.S. citizens and male immigrants, who are 18 through 25, are required to register with Selective Service,” the U.S. Department of War website states. “It’s important to know that even though he is registered, a man will not automatically be inducted into the military. In a crisis requiring a draft, men would be called in a sequence determined by random lottery number and year of birth. Then, they would be examined for mental, physical, and moral fitness by the military before being deferred or exempted from military service or inducted into the Armed Forces.”
To learn more about registration exemptions, visit the SSS website.
Alvaro Corral, an assistant professor in the School of Political Science, Public Affairs, Legal and Security Studies, said the changes to the Selective Service System reflect a shift in how the government maintains the database of those eligible.
“Up until now, it’s been required that men who are eligible for the selective service … are required to register with the selective service administration,” Corral said.
He added in 1973, the U.S. switched from a draft system to a voluntary system, which is how the current military operates.
“This new rule is that the system will essentially automatically register eligible men between the ages of 18 to 25,” Corral said.
According to the assistant professor, there has been a decline in compliance with voluntary registration, so the SSS is moving into automatic registration to increase the pool of eligible men.
He added there is no draft at the moment, unless the U.S. were to enter a sudden major military armed conflict.
“If that were to happen, this pool of eligible males … would be potentially ready to go to operate as the basis for which to move to a draft system, were we ever need one again,” Corral said.
He said drafting is an unpopular policy, which is why the country moved away from it, and “it brings in people that don’t necessarily want to be there.”
“What I think to a certain extent makes the modern military a bit stronger [and has] somewhat higher morale, is that everyone that’s there kind of wants to be there,” Corral said.
Joshua Robledo, a theatre sophomore, and Myles Bradley, a theatre senior, said they were not too knowledgeable about the transition from manual to automatic registration for the SSS.
“I think it’s just kind of weird to be forced into something I don’t want to do, exactly,” Bradley said.
Robledo said he believes a draft would be useless, while Bradley questioned how the U.S. would get people into the army.
Corral said reinstating a draft would require an act of Congress, and a military engagement would need to arise for a sufficient number of Democrats and Republicans to feel it prudent to reinstate a draft.
“That would imply something incredibly serious,” he said.
