Fiona Kim ’24, Ronan Valle ’24 and Matthew Reiter ’25 organized a voter registration event Monday Oct. 2. They registered at least 30 seniors to vote in the 2024 election.
Kim registered university students to vote over the summer and realized that many young adults are not registered to vote. She said she brought the event to the school because she noticed that many students did not know how to register.
“I asked some of my friends at Harvard-Westlake, [and] I realized that many of them don’t even know how to vote,” Kim said. “So I wanted to make sure that at least the kids who wanted to vote are registered so they can vote in the future when they turn 18.”
According to the Civics Center, an organization founded by a parent dedicated to bringing voter registration to American high schools, 8 million Americans will turn 18 and become eligible to vote between Nov. 2022 and Nov. 2024. However, less than half will do so because they are not registered.
Charlotte Newman ’24, who registered to vote at this event, said she has an interest in politics and values civic engagement.
“I registered to vote because I think politics are interesting, and I want to be an informed voter in the 2024 election,” Newman said. “I think it’s really important that people register to vote and get involved in politics, especially young people.”
Kim said another reason she decided to organize this event is because she feels it is important for high schoolers to be involved in democracy.
“At Harvard-Westlake, kids focus on academics or where they’re going to college and they don’t really see the bigger scheme of things,” Kim said. “There are elections going on and students don’t really bother to take part. I think that it’s really important to remind the students that they are able to vote, and it’s really important that they vote.”
