High School Voters & Civic Engagement Collaborative
School Administrators, Teachers, Coaches, Parents:
Let’s engage youth in voting! Take just 5 minutes and help eligible high school students vote on or before November 5!
Download Materials
Share these resources and graphics in your school emails, newsletters, or on social media:
From Minneapolis Elections & Voter Services
Election Basics from LWV Minneapolis
Vote411.org – our bilingual, one-stop-shop voter guide and election website materials
Make a Voting Plan
Ask your students in classrooms, lunchrooms, or over morning announcements if they have a plan for voting. If they need more info about the candidates or have questions, refer to these guides to answer their questions:
Connect with us
Take 2 minutes to connect us to the right person in your school so we can provide you with the support and tools you need to help engage students in voting! Activities like:
Registering eligible voters at your school
NVRD 2024!
For the first time, Minnesota will hold a live statewide virtual high school event featuring a step-by-step voter registration and preregistration (ages 16/17) session! Every high school- public and private, rural, suburban, and urban- is invited to join this groundbreaking celebration of youth voices, and civic engagement! Join Us!
Additional Resources & Info
High School Toolkit
Resources for registering and engaging students to vote, including civic activities like becoming an election judge.
Meetings & Events
All high school students, schools and partners are welcome at our meetings and events. Sign up for our list to get ongoing info.
Partner Info
Learn more about our partners and the opportunities they provide, and how to become a school or nonprofit partner.
Adopt a School
We want to connect with all high schools in Minnesota. Help us reach out by filling out the quick info-gathering survey below.
Program Overview
Working together, the League of Women Voters, YMCA Center for Youth Voice, Minneapolis Elections and Voter Services, and Hennepin County Elections have developed a working collaborative to better involve youth voice in our voter outreach initiatives to lessen the voter registration and turnout gaps among youth. While voter turnout among all Minnesotans is #1 in the nation, we know that young people turned out at about 20 points lower, and youth within our urban areas and among communities of color were even less likely to be registered or to vote.
Our approach is designed to more effectively involve youth voice, to pool our resources to educate high school students about all aspects of being a voter – voter registration, learning about the races and candidates, knowing how and getting out to vote both absentee and in person, serving as an election judge – and to develop a framework for organizations serving high school students to learn, grow and meet the civic engagement needs of our youth with greater collaboration and impact.
Although growing student involvement in civic engagement and voting is our primary goal, a strong secondary goal is the development of a collaborative that will bring together current “silos” that can better serve high school students across the state of Minnesota. We also know that engaged students are often the key to voter education and turnout within their extended families, providing another layer of impact for this initiative.
Partners
Questions?
Contact Michelle Witte to learn more about this program or to get involved.