By Sydney Cushman
Young people across America have a major problem. They have not been participating in elections as much as they should. The whirlwind of events this year has been changing this ‘fact’, however. In Connecticut, young people have been flocking to register to vote. According to a report by the Connecticut Mirror, people, ages 18 to 25, have seen the largest increase in registrations this past year out of all the other age groups. In a survey of a small group of people who have recently graduated Lewis Mills, they all said that they are registered to vote and that most of their friends (that are old enough to register) are, too. They also revealed that they believe there might have been a larger number of older students in the class of 2018 than there are in the 2019 senior class. As a result, there would be a smaller amount of students in the school that are able to register to vote. However, there are definitely still students who are currently old enough to vote in the senior class. According to Assistant Secretary AnnMarie Dixon, there are only 22 kids at Mills who are or will be 18 by November 6th, which is election day. She expressed that she “…thought that [the number of students over 18] would be higher.” This seems to correspond to the answers received in the survey. With such a small number of students of age, there probably won’t be a lot of young people from our school registering to vote before the November elections. Brendan Tewksbury, a teacher at Lewis S. Mills, coordinates a table that gets set up outside the cafeteria where students, who are old enough, can register to vote. It is held every spring, since more people are over 18 by then. Since it seems like a lot of people in the senior class have late birthdays, this makes perfect sense. Mr. Tewksbury believes that “… the biggest obstacle to … young people voting in the United States is that they don’t know how to register.” Handing students a simple form and having people there to answer any questions students might have is “​the way to do it,” he stated. He thinks that “[registering] is not confusing, but it appears to be,” so having someone show you how to register is immensely helpful. However, not every student wants to register. Two students who turned 18 before the start of the school year, Shyann and Prez Swanson, are not yet registered to vote. The two recently moved here from Florida, so they probably have had more to worry about than registering to vote, but they were not registered to vote back in Florida, either. Registering to vote is a very ‘adult’ and responsible thing to do, and according to Shyann, “I don’t want to give in to adulthood.” This idea could be plaguing other young voters and deterring them to vote. On the other hand, there are some students at Mills who are eager to vote in the upcoming November election. Samuel Dorman described himself as being “…more politically active than [his parents],” and sometimes he’s the one to remind them to vote. He and his friends are very invested in politics, but a lot of them are not of voting age yet. He also encourages his friends to register as soon as possible, so there won’t be any turmoil when they go to cast their vote. He said that he used the online portal to register, which he described as “being really easy to use.” Voting is very important to Sam, and he considers it “…[his] civic duty to vote.” In fact, he is so passionate about politics and law that he is planning on majoring in political science or a law-related field. It is clear from these interviews that there is a broad spectrum of people at Mills when it comes to opinions on voting. Some feel that voting is a responsibility, while others don’t feel much urgency to get registered and cast their vote. It is not required for citizens of the United States to vote, or to register meaning people can just choose to vote or not. As a result, it is easy to just never register if you’re often busy, or are too confused by the voting registration process. This negatively impacts less-experienced young voters, who are often too busy with school or their careers to have the time to register. They also often don’t know who to ask for help, leading to more frustration and confusion. It is apparent that young people need to have access to resources that will help them register to vote, so that they will be able to participate more in elections.