Nicholas Armour, a senior at Leo High School in the Auburn Gresham neighborhood, is a three-sport athlete and an Eagle Scout. And when he turns 18 in January, he will automatically be a registered voter in Illinois.
On Tuesday, Armour was one of over 200 Chicago teens from six high schools on the South and West sides who stood in line to fill out voter registration forms at an engagement event on National Teen Voter Registration Day. Students arrived at Leo High School early in the morning on school buses from across the city, then sat at tables with volunteers who helped them fill out the registration forms and provide the necessary documentation.
Students aged 16 and 17 can “pre-register” as voters in Illinois, meaning their official registration will automatically kick in once they reach the legal voting age of 18, without any additional paperwork. An Illinois law that took effect in January extended the ability to 16-year-olds for the first time.
At Tuesday’s event, 16- and 17-year-old students were assisted with an online preregistration form, while those who will be 18 or older on Nov. 5 were registered to vote in the upcoming election.
“It feels great to know I can set myself up for the future,” Armour said. “I know how important voting is, I know what the stakes are and I know the history about my people not having the right to vote. I feel like as a man, as a Black man, it’s important for me to be able to get out and vote.”
Since June 1, more than 4,800 18- and 19-year-olds in Chicago have registered to vote for the first time, according to the Chicago Board of Elections. However, the areas with the most youth registrations have been on the North Side, downtown or near the lakefront; meanwhile, Tuesday’s event in Auburn Gresham brought together students from Catholic high schools located primarily on the city’s Far South and West sides.
Leo High School held its voter registration drive in partnership with Get Out the Vote 4 Teens, an advocacy group that has worked to engage teenage voters across Chicago since January. The group’s founder, Letina Brady Pettis, founded National Teen Voter Registration Day in honor of her late father, who marched in Mississippi to expand voting rights during the Civil Rights Movement.
“You have some (young people) that are excited, and also you have ones that are undecided because they feel like their voice (doesn’t) matter,” Brady Pettis said. “I try to tell them, ‘How would you know your voice (doesn’t) matter if you don’t take the initiative to register to vote?’”
Brady Pettis added that she’d noticed a widespread lack of awareness about the voting rights young people in Illinois have, including preregistration and the ability for 17-year-olds to vote in primaries if they turn 18 by the general election.
“All schools need to understand that these kids are eligible to pre-register and register to vote,” she said.
As students filled out voter registration forms on Tuesday morning, Leo High School’s choir sang the national anthem in front of an arrangement of red, white and blue balloons. They wore shirts that said “Lions Vote,” a reference to their school mascot.
Volunteers from local nonprofits, political organizations and Divine Nine sororities handed out wristbands that said “I’m registered to vote, are you?” as lines of students in school uniforms filed in.
Lance Walton, a senior at St. Francis de Sales in the East Side neighborhood, said it felt “a little weird” visiting Leo High School for the event given the two schools’ ongoing sports rivalry.
Walton, who is 17, pre-registered on Tuesday and said he was excited to vote in future elections. He will not be 18 by the time of the upcoming general election. His older family members and friends all vote and stay engaged with politics and current events, he said, so those values were “passed down to (him).”
“I feel like if you can help change the world and have an impact on it in any possible way, you should,” Walton said. “You can make it better for you, your children, your grandchildren, for anybody.”
To register or pre-register to vote in Illinois, young people are required to present a form of government identification such as a driver’s license or an Illinois state ID. For “a lot” of students at Leo High School, this could have been a major barrier, said coordinator of student engagement and community partnership Yolanda Sandifer-Horton.
So, on Monday, Leo High School administrators arranged to have a mobile unit from the Department of Motor Vehicles visit the school the day before the voter registration drive and help students get their state IDs, Sandifer-Horton said.
“We wanted to make sure that our students had a voice and were able to be a part of their event,” Sandifer-Horton said. “Today, of course, all of our students are down here, excited and eager to participate in this. And then it’s great for them to be able to go home later and listen to the debate.”
Aiden Lott, a 17-year-old senior at Leo, showed off his new state ID as he waited in line to pre-register to vote. He’d gotten it on Monday during the mobile DMV visit.
“I want to elect people that speak for me,” Lott said.
Leo Principal Shaka Rawls, who was central in the organization process for Tuesday’s event, said he was thrilled students from five other high schools were able to participate. Rawls said it was “amazing that Leo is kind of the catalyst to all of this community action,” adding registering to vote connects directly to his school’s mission to encourage civic engagement and empowerment.
One of the participating high schools — De La Salle Institute in Douglas — brought 50 students from its civics classes to the voter registration event to encourage them to put their lessons into action, according to Principal Tom Schergen.
When asked what issues matter most to them, the newly registered young voters mentioned a range of subjects, including racial justice, LGBTQ+ rights, violence and their communities’ economic health.
Derrion Anderson from Leo High School is currently 17 but will be 18 by Election Day this fall. Now, he is registered and ready to vote in the upcoming general election. As he casts his ballot, the issues he’ll be thinking about include gun violence, police brutality and a woman’s right to choose, he said.
“I think it’s important to vote,” Anderson said. “Teens need to be heard, I feel like we should really have a say in the upcoming election.”
