Historically, Gen Z’s voter turnout has been disproportionately low. Despite this, as California prepares for its general election Nov. 3, Bay Area teenagers are leading initiatives to encourage their peers to get involved with voting and civic action.
According to a national poll released by the Institute of Politics at Harvard Kennedy School in April, low voter turnout is due to economic pressures facing young Americans and a growing belief that their civic participation does not matter in shaping political outcomes.
“It bothers me when I hear that young people feel like they don’t have an impact,” said Jay Bhimani, a senior at Irvington High School in Fremont, who worked to organize a voter registration drive at the school last year. Bhimani has noticed a gap in young people’s understanding of the political system and how its issues connect to them.
“I think we’re really privileged in the area we live in, and people take that for granted,” he said. Bhimani is working with Union City Councilwoman Cheris Crocker-Root to organize outreach initiatives this fall that invite local youth to register to vote and volunteer at election events.
Michelle Fernandez, co-president of the San Jose/Santa Clara League of Women Voters, works with local students to host registration drives at their schools. Reflecting on her interactions with youth, she said, “With young people, there seems to be an ‘I’m so over it’ with traditional politics. They want to see change.”
Despite these trends, Fernandez believes that young people should not just be reduced to a broad generalization.
“Is it true that there’s work to be done about young adults being one of the lowest voter turnout groups? Yes. But at the same time, it’s also important to highlight the young people in that demographic who are shattering that statistic,” she said.
Bridging the gap
Ariana Corbu, a senior at Evergreen Valley High School in San Jose, serves as the president of her school’s Law Club. She had the idea to host a voter drive last school year after noticing that many of her classmates were not pre-registered. In California, 16 and 17-year-olds can pre-register to vote. Their registration automatically becomes active when they turn 18.
“Sometimes, my classmates who are interested in being involved with politics don’t know where to start — I think that by having more conversations about local politics and engagement, it can help fill this gap,” she said.
As part of a service project, Irvington High School senior Amna Rahman led an educational workshop at the Milpitas Library in August, which taught middle schoolers about the voting process and ways that they could get involved with civic action.
“I’ve always been interested in public policy, but one barrier that I’ve encountered is figuring out how to start making changes in the issues that I’m passionate about,” she said. “It feels like no one ever tells you how to actually start.”
This gave her the idea to ask the students at her workshop to come up with their own independent projects about an issue personal to them. She meets with them regularly throughout the process, making sure that they’re on task for completing their goals.
“I wanted to bridge the gap between people who care about issues, whether it’s climate change or policy, but don’t know how to turn this into real action.”
Encouraging youth civic engagement
Valerie Stewart, a member of the League of Women Voters chapter in Fremont, Newark and Union City, works with young people to host voter registration drives at their high schools and colleges. Civic action is a particularly important issue to Stewart — as a young person in the 1970s, she was an activist who protested against the Vietnam War and worked to pass the 26th Amendment, which lowered the voting age to 18 in most states.
Stewart urges young people to be actively engaged with political issues. “Vote. Because if you don’t, other people will make the decisions about your future for you.”
Sophie Luo is a member of the class of 2027 at Irvington High School in Fremont.
Editor’s note: This story is part of the annual Mosaic Journalism Program for Bay Area high school students, an intensive course in journalism. Students in the program report and photograph stories under the guidance of professional journalists.