The Human Rights Watch Club ran a voter registration and pre-registration booth on the Quad during lunch on Sept. 19. Students 16 and older were able to fill out necessary forms in order to vote in future elections. The club is run by Amelia Chiarelli ’25, Tess Rosenfeld ’25 and Rheanna Vradiy ’25, and is a school chapter of the Human Rights Watch Student Task Force. The Student Task Force is a youth leadership-training program that empowers high school students across Los Angeles to voice their concerns about human rights issues, according to hrw.org..
Vradiy said she and her fellow club leaders decided to organize the booth because one of this year’s goals for the organization is to promote civic engagement.
“One of the campaigns the organization is focused on this year is voting for human rights, as well as just voting in general,” Vradiy said. “Thinking about how to bring this to our community, we saw no better way than to host a voter registration and pre-registration booth. Regardless if people decided to register or not, we hoped to encourage a conversation around voting and make people realize they can pre-register as young as 16.”
Vradiy said she believes that young people are able to bring more attention to social issues within politics.
“Youth voters bring an entirely new perspective that tends to be a better representation of social values now than in the past,” Vradiy said. “Although political opinions among youth vary, just within the social sphere of our school, many young people seem to be more focused on human rights and advocacy, which is important considering social and economic injustice minorities face in America.”
Trainee Esther Goldman ’26 said she thinks that young voters need to become engaged in politics now in order to be engaged citizens in the future.
“Youth civic engagement is important because [the youth] are going to inherit the world and politics that are being created now so they should have a role in shaping it,” Goldman said. “By encouraging family and friends over 18 to vote, as well as educating the community, youth can play a huge role in the election. Social media has also become important in the election, which allows younger people to have a voice even without a vote. I think that youth will absolutely have a say in the result of this election.”
Barron Linnekens ’26 said he recognizes the advantages of pre-registering to vote.
“I decided to pre-register because there were free donuts at the booth and I only got one if I pre-registered,” Linnekens said. “However, the advantage to pre-registration is that I don’t have to go through the headache of registering later. I think youth involvement in politics is important because young people have a different perspective on what this country should become.”
