Club strives to register new voters
Girls Learn International (GLI) is having a voter registration drive to get high schoolers to preregister or register to vote in preparation for the elections coming up in November and beyond.
Members of the club did not want the shelter-in-place order to stop their ability to make a difference, so when members Malin Johansson and Sophia Siopack received an invitation to the national GLI webinar about ways to stay active virtually, they decided right away to attend. In the webinar the importance of the young person’s voice was emphasized and that the best way for teens to be heard is to vote. This inspired their Digital Democracy campaign.
“I think it’s important for people to vote because it is our duty as citizens of a democracy and it is the way our voices can be heard,” states Siopack.
The amount of teenage voters has declined vastly over the past decades since 18-year-olds first won the right to vote in 1970. According to the United States Census Bureau, “Voting rates among young adults fell to 38.0 percent in 2012 from 44.3 percent in 2008.”
Johansson and Siopack hope to raise that percentage in order for elected officials to reflect the values of young people as well as the older generations.
If you are 18 years old you can register to vote, but even 16 and 17 year-olds can participate in the GLI campaign. If you are 16 or 17 you can preregister to vote. This means you sign up and when you turn 18 you are automatically registered and ready to vote.
To participate in the GLI Drive, click the first link to register (it should take less than five minutes), and the second one to fill a short form so GLI can count your vote!
One thought on “Club strives to register new voters”