On September 17th, Millbrook hosted a voter registration drive! A voter registration drive is when a group, organization, or a person provides the forms to vote in future elections.
Millbrook hosted the event during both student lunches and was targeted towards seniors who will be eligible to vote in this year’s upcoming elections. However, students who are not-eligible to vote but are 16 years old, were welcomed to pre-register for future elections!
Registering to vote is very important, especially for North Carolinians. Not only is NC a swing state, it’s also one of twenty states that allows 17 year olds who will be 18 by the general election to vote in the primaries.
However, many teenagers aren’t aware of this information. Mrs. North, Millbrook’s voter registration coordinator, said, “Keeping voting on students’ minds while they’re learning about all these things in school is important because they see the impact and it makes them feel empowered to have a place to go and participate.” North has had a passion for voting for some time now, previously being on the Wake County board of elections, former assignment manager for early voting, and a chief judge on Election Day.
When Sophomore Seve Solar was asked why he registered to vote he said, “I think it’s important to stay politically active as young people.” A key component for this election are the new 8 million Gen Z voters.
“There are lots of new policies around schools such as gun control, and voting contributes to these policies,” Soler said. As gun violence has risen by 31%, this is definitely a push factor for teens registering.
“Regardless of what your views are, I just want you to vote, get registered, and vote. Because none of this works if we don’t participate,” North said as she pointed to her classroom.
Soler shares a similar sentiment, “I just think it’s important to help participate in what you think is right.” Participation was not a problem for Wake County students. Millbrook and several other WCPSS schools held student voter registration drives on the same day. Combining all the school’s numbers, there were 432 students that registered through their school’s drives. For more information about voter registration visit ncsbe.gov.
