For a functioning democracy we need participation. That’s not the case especially with young folks. For high schoolers to get involved in voting they have to be lucky to either have trusted the old white voter registration agents from The League of Women voters or they had a teacher who instilled their voting power mattered. That leaves so many falling through the cracks of participating in our elections. On top of that, as I heard from my father that get echoed by my brothers and so many more- nothing changes even when we vote. And that’s pretty real for most folks as the focus is always on presidential elections. And they’re not wrong but where we do have so much power is in our local and state elections. That’s why I support 16 and 17 yr olds voting in school board elections. Giving them direct connections with the policy makers that define their education/lives. This will lead to more participation in having our voices heard.
Read the next article in the series by: Alyssa Luna: https://medium.com/@olenewmexico/alyssa-luna-on-voting-5e78f93f07a6?sk=c9b6485b22c7f798fd0ae0b8fb00134b
This article was written originally to be a speech for a Facebook Live stream video OLÉ did awhile back. Feel free to visit and watch the whole video here: https://www.facebook.com/586402784803665/videos/671603016798529
