High School Voter Registration

Picture by PATRICK SMITH/Daily Herald (those are my hands there on the right!)

Yesterday I had the opportunity to help with voter registration. I went to West Lake High School in Saratoga Springs. That has to be the biggest and nicest high school in the state! I was there with Councilman Michael McOmber, Kraig Thorn, Paul Ure and the mayor, Mia Love. I have helped with a couple of other high school registrations, but this had to be the most entertaining.

The mayor was great. She went around trying to get the students to register. You can read about it in today's Daily Herald.

Some students reactions are hilarious. Many do not want to vote. Councilman McOmber reminded a group of boys that there are men and women dying today so that they may have this right to vote. When they said they didn't want to vote, I told them, "but you do want to register!" That always worked.

Most of them (everyone at my table) asked what is naturalization. Most didn't know about the parties and as the newspaper article states, none of them knew who the Vice President of the United States is (Joe Biden), and most didn't know who's the governor of Utah (Gary Herbert). What the article doesn't mentioned is Mia also asked some of them who's the mayor of Saratoga Springs and most of them didn't know that either.

I know my kids couldn't answer all those questions, because just last week one of them asked me who's the Vice President of the United States.

Isn't it interesting how little 17 and 18 year olds know about their own government? Everyone out there that has contact with youth, please share some CIVICS 101 with them. You don't have to know everything and have all the answers. These youth, who will one day run our government, should have a basic understanding of how it works. This isn't something you can expect them to learn in school!

While the Constitution is framework for our government, you should all go read the Declaration of Independence. I think you will find it interesting to know all the things King George was accused of doing and know why we Declared our Independence.

Anyone who will be 18 years old or older by November 1st should register to vote. You will need to have or know either your Driver's License # or the last 4 digits of your Social Security #. Lots of students were not able to complete their registrations because they didn't know either of these #s and there wasn't someone home so they could get it.

There is a high school competition going on. The High School who gets the most students to register during one of these registration drives will be given a U.S. Flag that was flown over the U.S. Capital Building. This is being done courtesy of U.S. Congressman, Jason Chaffetz.

To find out if you are registered to vote click here.
If you need to register click here. You will need to print the form, fill it out and hand or send it in.