When California State Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara) was in high school, she watched angrily as her 18-year-old male classmates were forced into fighting a war many of them disagreed with in Vietnam. What was most frustrating, Jackson told a crowd of Santa Maria High School students on Sept. 20, was that 18-year-olds at the time weren’t allowed to vote.
Her peers were old enough to die for their country, Jackson asked, but not considered old enough to have a say in even the nation’s most basic policies?
Jackson—who was just one of several politicians gathered at Santa Maria High School for High School Voter Education Weeks, a series of events aimed at inspiring youth to get out and vote—said that she and other young adults in the country at the time rallied for the voting age to be changed. In 1971, the United States Congress ratified the 26th Amendment to the Constitution, granting citizens 18 and older the right to vote.
It was a major step for the nation’s youth, Jackson said, but it was followed by the realization that most young adults in the U.S. wouldn’t vote. They still don’t.
“Eighteen- to 24-year-olds are least likely to vote,” Jackson told the crowd of high school juniors and seniors. “I can’t understand that because our decisions will affect you the most.”
In an effort to simplify the voting process for this demographic, Jackson introduced Senate Bill 113, which allows 16- and 17-year-olds to preregister to vote at local Departments of Motor Vehicles and online, in 2013. It was passed into law the following year.
The registration process can be daunting to young people who are just coming of age politically, Jackson said, but the preregistration process can be done when getting a driver’s license or online with the help of a parent. When preregistered citizens turn 18, they are automatically registered to vote, Jackson said, making it simple from then on to cast a vote in every local, state, and nationwide election.
“If you don’t like what’s going on in Washington, D.C., and I don’t like what’s going on in Washington, D.C., either, you can vote these bums out of office,” Jackson told the lively crowd of students.
Jackson was joined by California Secretary of State Alex Padilla, who said many of the audience members reminded him of himself when he was just leaving high school. That was when he thought of politicians as being corrupt, Padilla said, and wanted nothing to do with the voting process or any other government activities.
It wasn’t until after he graduated college—when an initiative that would have prevented immigrants from using government services was on the ballot in 1994—that Padilla realized just how directly politics could affect him. His parents immigrated to the U.S. from Mexico, Padilla said, and they worked blue-collar jobs for years so that he and his two siblings could have quality educations.
“It affects me,” Padilla said. “It affects my family, whether I like it or not.”
The first step of becoming politically active, Padilla said, is getting registered to vote, and students ages 16 to 18 had the opportunity to do just that after the presentations on Sept. 20.
Several tables in the back of Santa Maria High School’s gym held piles of voter-registration and preregistration cards. Teachers, politicians, and others were readily available to answer questions and help students fill out the paperwork.
Santa Maria High School Principal Joseph Domingues said the tables would be up until every student who wanted to register filtered out of the gym. The event took about a month to organize, Domingues said, but when the politicians reached out to Santa Maria High School, he thought it sounded like a wonderful opportunity for his students.
“A lot of students don’t really know how to register,” Domingues said. “We want to make this friendly and safe.”
After the presentations, the rear end of the gym filled with students who wanted to register or preregister. While many of them seemed hesitant, standing timidly near the tables but not quite in line, others, including 16-year-old Jennifer DeLeon, dove right into the paperwork. DeLeon said she couldn’t wait for the opportunity to vote in two years. She was also looking forward to having the registration process out of the way.
Student Adriana Arias, 16, echoed similar sentiments. Arias said that thanks to the event, she and many of her peers were able to register at school, rather than making a trip to the Department of Motor Vehicles.
“It truly makes a difference in the lives of students who come from immigrant backgrounds,” Arias said.
School scene was written by Staff Writer Kasey Bubnash this week. Information should be sent to the Sun via mail, fax, or email at mail@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Sep 28 – Oct 5, 2017.