A Model for Promoting Student Voting

Last fall, Guilford County Schools in Greensboro, N.C., launched a comprehensive voter education program, during which nearly 3,000 students became registered voters, a 185 percent increase.

This initiative took shape as we considered recent scholarship on voter interest and turnout among young people that suggests, contrary to popular belief, they are overwhelmingly interested in politics and voting. Yet these young, first-time voters face barriers in understanding the process, registering and getting to a polling site. These obstacles disproportionately impact students of color and those living with poverty. Among our high school students, one of those characteristics applies to at least 66 percent.

Nearly all 28 high schools in Guilford County provide civic education and registration through courses, projects and voting drives. However, these are handled independently by individual teachers at different points during students’ education. When we considered the numbers — that seven in 10 individuals under age 24 who are eligible to vote don’t vote, and one in five who are eligible to register won’t register — we asked what else we could do as a school system.

Alongside a nonprofit community partner known as You Can Vote, we delivered nonpartisan, unbiased, fact-based education on voter requirements, registration and elected offices and supported students through the registration process. We established optional field trips to early-voting sites for eligible students to mitigate transportation barriers.