Future high school students across the U.S. may find it easier to register to vote, an expansion of access that would be made possible in part by some current students at Marshall High School.
A group of students at the Pimmit Hills school spent the past year advocating for federal legislation that would designate all high schools as voter registration agencies, allowing them to host registration drives and receive reimbursement for the costs.
After months of balancing lobbying with school work, they successfully got the High School Voter Empowerment Act of 2024 introduced in Congress on April 30.
“If you told us all a year ago that we would be introducing a bill in Congress, I don’t think any of us could have believed it,” rising senior Samad Quraishi told FFXnow in a interview earlier this month. “So, we were, I think, a mix of shocked but pleasantly surprised when we found out that the bill was actually being introduced…We thought it would be a very uphill battle, but I think we also realized that it is possible for the youth to get involved.”
Now organized as the nonprofit Centre for Voters’ Initiative and Action, with Quraishi as the executive director, the students first got to know each other as members of Marshall’s Young Democrats Club.
They initially focused on election campaigns, knocking on doors and making calls for candidates, but after coming across a version of the High School Voter Empowerment Act from 2021, they got inspired to dive into the policy side of politics.
The students began reaching out to members of Congress in September 2023 to advocate for the bill, which was referred to a committee in 2021 but never advanced. That led to a meeting in October with the White House’s Counsel to the Vice President.
By the time the new bill was introduced by Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-Florida) and Sen. Laphonza Butler (D-California), the team had visited over 250 congressional offices, and the Centre for Voters had expanded into a national organization with over 400 volunteering students, according to a press release.
Organization and preparation were key. They delegated different duties to different participants, with some people focusing on research or calling and emailing legislators, while others made the trips to Capitol Hill.
“Even before we actually started going into offices and lobbying, we were doing a lot of work making Congressional profiles and meeting to see how we would talk about the bill, the language we were supposed to use,” Miranda Elliot Ortega said.
For her sister, Julia Elliot Ortega, meeting with members of Congress meant having to catch the Metro immediately after school and rush to their offices. She describes the experience as “formative” in helping her understand how policy-making works and the effort it takes for ordinary citizens to get involved, even for students with the privilege of living near D.C. and having the resources to lobby for change.
While they “didn’t really have a lot of adult oversight,” Quraishi says Fairfax County Public Schools and their teachers “were very supportive,” particularly Amanda Schall, a world history teacher at Marshall who sponsors the Young Democrats Club, and Lucas Kline, a geography teacher who lent advice as a former lawyer and political campaign worker.
The students also took advantage of an attendance policy that lets students in grades 7 to 12 miss one day of school per year for “optional civic engagement activities.” They used their day to meet with lawmakers and hold a press conference, FCPS said in a news release.
Though the students mostly met in the Young Democrats Club and the bill’s sponsors so far in both chambers are all Democrats, the legislation is intended to be nonpartisan with the goal of encouraging political engagement by all young voters, regardless of what their stance might be on a specific issue.
Eleanor Liang, a rising senior who serves as the Centre for Voters’ assistant director for U.S. programs, told FFXnow that she met with both Republican and Democratic legislators who voiced support for the bill.
“Every side needs more voters, right?” she said. “Regardless of whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican, they just want the youth to participate more.”
Youth voter turnout, meaning people under 30, has generally increased in recent election cycles, and the 2024 general election is expected to continue that trend. One poll found that about 53% of 18 to 29-year-olds “definitely” plan to vote — on par with the turnout rate in the 2020 presidential election.
However, turnout varies by state, with election laws that make it easier for people to register and cast a ballot as a key differentiator, along with the issues and competitiveness of individual races on the ballot, according to CIRCLE.
Most states let 17-year-olds preregister if they’ll be 18 by the next election day, and some, like Virginia, allow 16-year-olds to preregister. Since 2020, Virginia has also required public high schools to give eligible students time during the school day to register to vote online or with a provided mail application.
The High School Voter Empowerment Act seeks to make that a standard across the country. Public high schools would be required to conduct at least one registration drive each academic year with the goal of registering all eligible students enrolled in an American government or economics class who will be at least 17 by April 10 of that year.
High schools would also be allowed to request the use of voting machines for student council elections and seek reimbursement from the U.S. Department of Education for the cost of their registration drives.
The House and Senate have both referred their versions of the bill to committees, but it’s unclear when legislators might take action.
The Marshall students say many people their age are passionate about political issues — as evidenced in recent years by demonstrations in support of LGBTQ rights or to protest Israel’s war on Gaza — but they don’t always know how to get involved.
Nia Gouvis says she didn’t know she could register to vote at 16 until she got involved with this initiative as a junior, noting that the group organized registration drives at Marshall to show how easy it can be to sign up to vote.
“What this bill does is it gets the ball rolling, and it really gives us a voice and makes it easier for us to make a difference on the issues that we care about,” said rising senior Vedansh Garg, the Centre for Voters’ assistant director for international programs.
