Voting is one of the best ways to have your voice heard and to be involved in your community, but many high school students who are old enough to vote aren’t registered to do so. To counteract this issue AP Government teacher Jeremy Turner’s US Government class has hosted voter registration drives in the school cafeteria. The first one was held in September and continues to the present day.
“Citizens who will be 18 yrs old by the general Election Day (November 5, 2024) can register to vote for the state primary and vote in March. MS requires all new voters to be registered prior to 30 days before the next election in order to be able to vote,” Turner said in an announcement.
Studetns who are interested in registering to vote can contact Mr. Turner in A210 for more information.
Turner’s class has hosted similar drives in the past, but because of the limitations the pandemic placed on physical meet-ups holding a registration drive in the middle of the cafeteria became impractical, especially considering that the cafeteria wasn’t in use for the majority of 2020.
“We have done it in the past, but then COVID hit and so we kind of had to back off a little bit, so this is our first year back at doing it,” Turner said.
The voter registration drive doubles as both part of the AP Government curriculum and as a way to help senior students at THS get registered to vote. This allowed students to improve their grades and their community at the same time.
“The AP US government class are required to do a civic project for the course, and so I thought a good way is to get seniors or any other kind of student here at Tupelo High School to register to vote.” Turner said.
Holding the drive in the cafeteria allows as many students as possible to register, as the vast majority of students will have an opportunity to go there during the school day.
“It’s just a more common area, it’s where a lot of people come together, and that way we thought we’d get most people or more students that could register to vote.” Turner said.
