"We Vote" High School Voter Registration Campaign

League of Women Voters Lexington Chapter recently embarked on a new voter services project-- the "We Vote!" high school voter registration campaign. One of the program goals is to educate high school students on the importance of voting and why their vote can make a difference in their lives. A third goal is to get students to register online. Any student turning 18 on or before the date of fall election is eligible to vote, not only in the fall general election, but also the spring primary. When students register to vote, we also attempt to collect contact information to strengthen our Get Out the Vote efforts. We not only plan to remind students to vote, but we will also be able to send alerts reminding students to update their registration in early fall, when they may have moved away from home. The LWV of Lexington was awarded a grant from the LWVUS Education Fund to complete this project. 

"We Vote!" recruited a large and talented group of volunteers, training them to go into the local high schools to make presentations to individual classrooms. We will strive to make presentations in as many public and private high schools as possible to maximize our reach to new voters.

We are encouraging friendly competition between the schools to see which school registers the highest percentage of their students who are age eligible to vote and promoting the program though social media as we roll it out at each school.

The project was well underway with some school visits completed and many other school visits scheduled when our local schools closed due to Coronavirus. If schools reopen this spring, "We Vote!" will resume the program as originally planned. In the meantime we will engage with students via social media.  Otherwise, the program will continue when schools reopen in the fall.  Anyone interested in learning more or volunteering for the "We Vote!" campaign can contact Mark Scarr at mscarr7795@aol.com.