Nearly 150 high school students across Allegheny County came together Thursday to learn about voter registration and civic engagement.
The Allegheny Coalition for Youth Engagement (ACYE), a group of local, state and national advocacy organizations, held their second Youth Vote Huddle to encourage young people to vote in the general election and get involved in electoral politics beyond November. Students heard from several speakers, including Allegheny County Councilor Bethany Hallam, on the importance of voting. Teen leaders also led workshops on voter registration and elections, and facilitated discussions on social issues.
“I think it’s been a pretty crazy election cycle,” said Lucas Yero Araoz, a senior at Mt. Lebanon High School and one of the leaders at the event. “I feel like they say that every year, but this is really a one-of-a-kind moment in time.”
Araoz said he got involved in politics after starting a Latino student union at his school and organizing a fundraiser for Casa San Jose, a Latino community organization in Pittsburgh.
“That made me realize the power that an individual can have.”
Araoz said he’s excited to cast his first ballot in the upcoming election and that he’s made up his mind about who he’ll vote for. Voting rights and climate change are two issues driving his decision, he said.
Obama Academy Senior Talynn Allen participated in the huddle and will also be voting for the first time in November, becoming eligible just in time — she turns 18 on Election Day.
“I feel like it’s a big part of one's life. Like now you're an adult and you're able to make more decisions than you were before,” said Allen “Also I think it’s kind of exciting to have that experience on my birthday.”
While youth voter turnout nationwide has historically been lower than other age groups, the percentage of 18-29-year-olds showing up to the polls has grown in Pennsylvania since 2016, which helped determine recent elections in the battleground state. According to the Massachusetts-based Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE), 18-29-year-olds in Pennsylvania supported Biden by a significant margin in 2020, and he won the state by about 1% — 81,000 votes.
Young Pennsylvanians are expected to impact the outcome again in 2024. CIRCLE’s Youth Electoral Significance Index ranks Pennsylvania third among states where young people are most likely to influence presidential, U.S. Senate, and U.S. House elections this year — behind Wisconsin and Michigan.
Obama Academy junior Orli Trumbull won’t be eligible to vote in the upcoming election, but that doesn’t make her any less engaged in the process. She helped lead the event and serves on the National Youth Council for the Civics Center, one of the national organizations in the coalition that helped organize the huddle.
“I care about a lot of issues, and I care that my peers' voices are heard, and I think it’s super-important to raise the voter-registration rate.”
As of August, an estimated 40% of 18-year-olds in Allegheny County were registered to vote, according to the Civics Center, and ACYE is hoping to boost that percentage with events like the Youth Vote Huddle.
“We have to go where the children are,” said Regina Holley, the Pittsburgh regional director for PA Youth Vote, a statewide collection of organizations dedicated to empowering youth voters and improving civic education in public schools.
Holley — a former Pittsburgh Public Schools educator and school board president until 2019 — said it’s important to help young people understand how getting involved in elections can benefit them. She pointed to a question a student once asked her that shifted her perspective on youth engagement.
“He said, ‘I want to know what’s in it for me,’” Holley recalled.
As much as the huddle addressed voting, including registering youth and teaching schools how to host voter registration drives, the forum also collected information about what drives youth voters. When students signed up for the huddle, they were asked to identify the issue with which they’re most concerned from a list of 10.
Gun reform, racial justice and reproductive rights are the top three choices, said Beth Sondel, the director of education and organizing at The Civics Center. She said it’s important for young people to connect those issues with policy, especially at the local level.
“When we can help kids understand local politics and how they affect the issues that they care about, I think that that’s probably the most effective way to get young people to be civically engaged and to be voters.”
Peer-to-peer engagement, she said, is one of the most effective ways to do that.
“We want to make sure that every eligible kid gets registered, but beyond that we want to make sure it’s the young people that are leading those efforts.”
Dejwon Jones, a senior at Grace Academy and a youth leader at the event, said he feels unsure about both presidential candidates and wants to do more research. He’s concerned with the issues in his neighborhood, Mount Oliver.
“The biggest thing I’m focusing on is what I can see in my environment,” said Jones. “A lot of people don’t get the same opportunities or finances as other schools.”
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