With the hotly contested 2024 election just under a year away, the Diamond Bar High School students of AP Government have taken up the task of pre-registering students sixteen or above to vote.
To increase youth participation in elections, the California state government gives students 16 and above the opportunity to pre-register to vote. With many students unaware that they can pre-register to vote, the students of AP Government helped get the word out by assisting eligible students in pre-registering or registering to vote. The students of AP Government were eventually able to pre-register or register around 150 students.
“We were asked to take on that project as my AP Government students,” AP Government teacher Cathy Lee said. “So this is our third year doing [this] and we have been very successful in registering and pre-registering students to vote.”
The students of AP Government used various strategies to encourage students to pre-register to vote, one of which was running a booth during lunch. Through stickers, messages of civic duty, and entering junior and senior history classes to present before handing out pre-registration forms, they hoped to incentivize more students to vote–an act essential to a justly governed nation.
“Voting is one of the most important things anyone can do to engage in our democracy,” senior Chloe Schaefer said. “Here in the United States, we have a constitutional right to vote; therefore, we should be using it to make our voices heard.”
Of eligible voters, those in the 18-24 age group have the lowest voter turnout rate, with a turnout rate of around 48% in 2020. As a result, many issues that relate to younger people often go unresolved, while issues relating to older individuals are prioritized.
“I want my students and other young people to embrace the fact that it’s a privilege to vote,” Lee said. “People died and fought for the right to vote. It’s free and it’s a civic duty to make an impact in our society.”
Now successfully finished pre-registering students to vote, AP Government hopes pre-registered students go and vote in the upcoming elections, most notably the 2024 presidential election.
“I’d like to say we’re very successful, and I think [the project] is a huge accomplishment,” Schaffer said.
