South Side High School celebrates Teen Voter Registration Day
Students from several area schools were welcomed to Leo High School in Gresham for Teen Voter Registration Day. The teens registered and learned about their civic duty.
CHICAGO – A South Side high school held a voter registration drive for Chicago students on Tuesday to mark Teen Voter Registration Day.
Youth from area high schools went to Leo High School in Gresham to register or pre-register to vote.
The fact that it was available at school made it easier.
Election officials and election board volunteers walked 16-, 17- and 18-year-olds through the process. A state ID or driver’s license is required, and many had not received this document until the Illinois Secretary of State’s office sent a mobile unit to the school.
If a teenager turns 18 before November 5, he or she can vote in the next presidential election. The lesson was about the importance of civic engagement.
Derion Washington turns 18 in October. He will be eligible to vote in November. He said adults told them to take responsibility.
Voter registration for local youth underway at Leo High School
Chicago teens are getting help registering to vote in the upcoming election. Leo High School is hosting a registration drive today for students from across the city.
“We are the future. We are the next generation of adults,” Washington said.
One graduate came from St. Francis de Sales High School.
Most people my age don’t realize how important these things are. They will affect us today and our children later, and if we don’t focus on them now and try to solve and sort things out now, it will hurt us in the long run,” said Lance Walton.
Shaka Rawls, principal of Leo High School, said the key to getting young people to vote is to talk to them, not talk at them.
“I think too often we don’t listen to young people. We see them at 31st Street Beach or at the takeovers downtown, but we don’t listen to them. And this is where young people have an opportunity to have a voice and we can listen to them,” Rawls said.
The adults said it’s easy to get young people to register, but getting them to actually vote is still a challenge. Tuesday’s event may have generated a hundred or more new voters in Chicago.
