REACHING & TEACHING HIGH SCHOOL VOTERS

By VOTER Team member, Loren Corrieri

According to LWV.org, people under 30 are underrepresented in the electorate.  Voter Registration efforts have focused on colleges which is important; however, 43% of Americans have no college experience. So how can we reach them? By starting VR efforts at the high school level!

LWVSPA is already on the job.  Spearheading the development and implementation is LWVSPA board member, Betsy Wells.  By chance, Betsy attended a Voter Services Team meeting and realized that voter registration and education was what she wanted to do.

The Voters Services Team found it difficult to get a foot in the door at local public high schools, but learned a valuable lesson – students were not receptive to hearing from “a bunch of older women.” This insight led the team to develop a pilot program to involve students in organizing and presenting peer voter registration drives. A key factor was establishing and building strong relationships with school faculty involved with student government.

At two local private schools where Voter Services Team members had contacts, faculty helped recruit students to participate in organizing voter registration events. Participants were enthusiastic about the experience.  One of the schools registered up to 22 teenage voters. (Note:  students 16 and older can pre-register.)

These experiences laid the groundwork for approaching the public schools. At St. Pete High School, Mary Ellen Gordon provided a contact who in turn provided assistance in starting voter registration efforts.  The LWVSPA Voter Services Team looks forward to conducting a voter registration event at St. Petersburg High School in the near future, perhaps before the winter break.