Turners Falls High School senior, Tyler Murray-Lavin, said he plans to vote in the 2020 presidential election but not before doing his research on all of the candidates.
Murray-Lavin was one of about a dozen students who attended the League of Women Voters of Franklin County’s presentation at the school Friday, where it registered students ages 16, 17 and 18.
“Many of you will be 18 by the next presidential election,” said league member Ruth Odom. “For those who aren’t, you’ll be ready to vote in elections that follow.”
“Your vote counts, so use it,” Odom said emphatically.
The league visited several schools to register juniors and seniors, hoping most of them will vote in the 2020 election. Some students also signed pledges to vote, which means they’ll receive a reminder from the league before future elections.
League members Denise Petrin and Janice James joined Odom in the hour-long presentation that taught students how to register, what identification they’ll need the first time they go to vote, absentee ballots and more.
“Sometimes people register but don’t vote,” said Petrin. “It’s like preparing breakfast and not eating any of it.”
Murray-Lavin said he felt like he learned a lot from the women but said he feels like he needs to learn a lot more.
It was David Smith’s and Laura Larson’s U.S. history classes that attended on Friday. The league also visited government and current event classes this past week, like Amber Crochier’s Current Issues class at Franklin County Technical School.
“This is great to have outside voices explaining what they need to do,” Crochier said. “We talk about voting, but they actually get to register.”
Turners Falls High School junior, Abigail Waite said the session was “very helpful” and she felt more informed afterward. She said she was going to take her registration form and pledge card home and sign them, and then return them to Town Hall.
Odom and Petrin asked students to raise their hands if they attend public school, and followed that with questions about whether they were going to attend college, get a job or join the military.
As hands went up and down, they explained that voting would give them a voice in all of those and more.
“Your vote might influence lawmakers,” said Petrin.
Odom reminded students that even though they vote, it might not always go their way, but at least they’ll have a voice. The women then explained that national issues affect many people, but state and local issues affect them even more deeply, so those elections are just as important, if not more. They showed students data that revealed of 12 democracies across the world, the United States was 11th when it came to the percentage of registered voters who voted in the last major election.
“And even fewer people voted in the midterms,” Odom said. “This impacts your lives — everyone’s lives.”
She said a few examples of how one or two votes can make a difference include a 2017 vote in Virginia for a state House seat that was decided by pulling the name of one of the two candidates out of a bowl because it was a tie. She said there was also a vote decided in New Mexico in 2016 for a state House seat that was decided by two out of 14,000 votes.
“A coin toss broke another tie in 2006,” Odom said. “Your vote does count more than you know. You don’t want they name of your next legislator being drawn out of a hat.”
Before registering Turners Falls High School students to vote, the women explained that if they want information on candidates or issues, they should go to the internet, newspapers, television and brochures and booklets that different organizations hand out before elections. They can also visit: votesmart.org.
“You may not know a name or a question about some issue, but you can change that by learning about them,” Petrin said.
The league returned to the cafeteria at about 12:30 p.m. on Friday to register juniors and seniors as they dined.
For more information about the national and local leagues, visit: www.lwv.org or www.lwvma.org