America is one month away from going to the polls and electing a new president, on Nov. 5, 2024. 161 million Americans will take on the immense task of selecting the next President of the United States. Students at UPrep have a role as participants in the upcoming election. However, not everyone chooses to participate.
According to Tufts University, only 23% of people ages 18-29 voted in the 2022 midterm elections. In hopes of driving more young people to the ballot box, UPrep teachers like Pat Grant and Damin Bauer urge seniors to vote.
“Everyone should vote,” Bauer said. “The youth don’t, but they should.”
Bauer has gained a great deal of knowledge about politics from his experience working for Virginia Senator Charles Colgan. Through his involvement, Bauer has learned about the inner workings of the American political system.
“If it’s truly a democracy, you want people to participate,” Bauer said. “The more that people participate, the more you get involved, the more you listen to others perspectives, the more you understand your own perspective.”
Grant’s perspective is that education is an important part of democracy.
“I think that democracy must be learned by each generation,” Grant said. “That’s what I tell my students at the beginning of every class. And I believe that I teach because I’m committed to helping improve democracy by having everyone become involved by voting.”
Even though students under 18 are ineligible to vote, they can still make their voices heard in other ways.
“One thing that’s a myth is that students who can’t vote don’t count,” Grant said.“They do. They count a lot. Students can become involved in campaigns. You can work on your laptop and contact people electronically.”
Junior Aslan Malik is passionate about connecting with other students about politics.
“People should organize,” Malik said. “And when I say organize, people should be involved with mutual aid and voter outreach, specifically with communities who don’t often vote.”
Malik also believes that students can get involved in extracurricular activities to learn about politics.
“If you really want to be involved in, and prepare yourself for elections, you can do youth and government activities, like mock congress, “ Malik said.
Bauer recommends his students talk with people they know who are eligible to vote.
In his classes, he enjoys having discussions about politics with his students, hoping to teach them about the features of the political process. One of these features, Gerrymandering, the redrawing of districts to provide more power to their party, regardless of the actual makeup of the population, was particularly shocking to Bauer’s students.
“You can have conversations with those people that are eligible to vote about things that are going on,” Bauer said. “We talked about gerrymandering. Only three kids knew about gerrymandering (The redrawing of districts to provide more power to their party, regardless of the actual makeup of the population). That was huge, and when they found out, they were upset, but if you don’t [talk], people don’t know. They don’t realize that maybe things should change.”
When Bauer talks with students about how they should think about voting, he stresses that they should be proud of the decisions that they make and the person they elect.“
Look at it as if you had to announce who you voted for,” Bauer said. “You don’t have to, and you shouldn’t, but in your mind, you should think, would I be proud of that person being the person representing me, my state, my county, and my nation.”
Go to this link to find a ballot box near you.
