Learn about Elections

In the last Presidential election, students at one school made a great difference. They got people registered to vote. To be able to vote, you need to be 18 years old. And you need to be a registered voter. It is easy to register. You bring something that shows you live in the community. You can bring a bill. You can bring a driver’s license.

Many people do not register to vote. Why don’t they register? Some people think that their vote is not important.

The seventh grade class at the school learned about what is called voter apathy. Apathy means not caring. They learned that in their own community there were many people who were not registered to vote. They wanted to change that. They said they would like to vote, but since they were not old enough they wanted to get other people to vote.

They started a campaign. They would get more people registered to vote. They made a plan. They would begin by getting people in their families registered. Then they would get parents of other students to register.

Their teacher called the Registrar’s Office. That is the part of government that gets people registered. The teacher asked if they would send a registrar to the school on the school’s open house day. A registrar is a person who registers voters. That way people could register to vote while they were at the school. The answer was yes. A registrar came.

That day, 172 people registered to vote. The students were proud. But they had more to do. So they went and talked with students in other classes. They asked the students to tell their families how important it was to register to vote.

Then they held another registration day. This time, 102 more people registered to vote. They came to the school again. People were getting excited about the election.

After the election, the students were proud. They could not vote. But they had made sure that more people were registered. And they had reminded them to vote. They were sure they had made a difference.