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"“The youth movement right now has a lot of energy,” Lane Murdock, 16, tells *Teen Vogue*. The rising junior at Ridgefield High School in Connecticut [started the online petition that sparked the National School Walkout that took place on April 20](https://www.teenvogue.com/story/meet-lane-murdock-16-year-old-organizer-national-school-walkout) and believes that “with any movement, it’s really about turning all that passion into action.”\n\nWith primaries underway in states across the country and just over two months to go before the midterm elections on November 6, young people, from Parkland, Florida, to Santa Fe, Texas, and beyond, have been at [the forefront of this watershed moment in American politics](https://www.teenvogue.com/story/parkland-students-are-saying-what-adult-politicians-wont). A [Youth Poll](http://iop.harvard.edu/spring-2018-poll) conducted in March by the Harvard Institute of Politics shows 37% of those under 30 report they will “definitely” be voting in the upcoming November elections, so there’s much anticipation that the action from youth will turn into voter power.\n\nAt the crossroads between “passion” and “action” sits Let America Vote. [Established in 2017](http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/318241-former-dem-senate-candidate-launches-voting-rights-grqoup) by Jason Kander, a current Kansas City, Missouri, mayoral candidate who started the group following his loss for a seat in the Senate, its purpose is to help break down the barriers keeping Americans from voting. [In April](https://www.letamericavote.org/news/pressreleases/2018/let-america-vote-launches-national-initiative-increase-voter-registration-among-high-school-students/), it launched Cap, Gown, Vote\\!, a national initiative in partnership with mayors across the country to increase voter registration among eligible high school students.\n\nJason, 37, doesn’t remember registering to vote for the first time, but recalls that his right to vote was particularly meaningful to him when he was able to cast a ballot while serving as [a military intelligence officer in Afghanistan](https://www.letamericavote.org/about-jason/). After Jason became the [first millenial in the country elected to statewide office](http://politics.uchicago.edu/fellows-program/fellow/jason-kander) as Missouri’s secretary of state in 2013, one of his first actions in office was to [champion legislation to make absentee voting in Missouri more convenient and more secure](https://www.jasonkander.com/record/right-to-vote/).\n\n“A lot of that came from my experience,” Jason tells *Teen Vogue*. “I think we ought to start treating voters less like criminals and more like customers.” Jason has been an [outspoken critic of voter ID laws](https://www.kansascity.com/opinion/readers-opinion/guest-commentary/article192997274.html) and their consequences, [particularly for voters who are poor, African-American, Latinx, or elderly](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/getting-a-photo-id-so-you-can-vote-is-easy-unless-youre-poor-black-latino-or-elderly/2016/05/23/8d5474ec-20f0-11e6-8690-f14ca9de2972_story.html?utm_term=.4878da2fb661). For Jason, perhaps most famous for his [viral 2016 Senate campaign ad in which he assembled an AR-15 while blindfolded to advocate for background checks for gun owners](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wqOApBLPio0), his vision for Let America Vote was born out of what those in the business world might call sustainable growth, but where gains are made in the form of progress, rather than profit. [Speaking to a group of Georgetown University students in March](http://www.thehoya.com/college-dems-recognize-jason-kander-voting-rights-work/), Jason characterized the organization as a nationwide lobbying machine, much like Big Pharma for the pharmaceutical industry. “Until we created Let America Vote, there was nothing you could characterize as ‘Big Voter,’” he told students.\n\nMidterm elections have [historically been a challenge when it comes to mobilizing voters, including young people](http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/06/14/younger-generations-make-up-a-majority-of-the-electorate-but-may-not-be-a-majority-of-voters-this-november/). Although recent surveys show that today’s young people are [feeling more empowered](https://apnews.com/a13f75f0a90845f19a61894e58450646) than ever before, experts are mindful of a historic gap between activism and the ballot box — [particularly during midterm years](http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/03/will-the-youth-vote-surge-in-november.html).  In 2014, midterm elections saw the lowest voter registration and turnout rates [ever recorded](https://civicyouth.org/2014-youth-turnout-and-youth-registration-rates-lowest-ever-recorded-changes-essential-in-2016/) in the past 40 years among voters 18 to 29 years old, with just 19.9% of eligible voters casting a ballot.\n\nWith the launch of Cap, Gown, Vote\\!, an initial nine cities — [including Reno, Nevada; Birmingham, Alabama; and Nashua, New Hampshire](https://www.letamericavote.org/news/pressreleases/2018/let-america-vote-launches-national-initiative-increase-voter-registration-among-high-school-students/) — will serve as incubators, where local leaders will work with high school students, teachers, and administrators to encourage voter registration. The group has also partnered with Rock the Vote to develop a new online tool that students can use to register, regardless of whether they live in one of the nine pilot cities.\n\n“It’s a pretty simple metric,” Jason says. “When you look at numbers, the fact that there are millions of students, young people, who folks say aren’t likely, aren’t expected to vote, even though they’re eligible voters, there’s a lot of room to grow and there’s a lot of room to make a huge difference here.”\n\nAccording to a [2018 poll](https://www.cosmopolitan.com/politics/a19143923/survey-young-people-primaries-voter-turnout-2018/), 20% of young voters never vote in primary elections. [Research](https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/07/well/family/what-really-makes-us-vote-it-may-be-our-parents.html) has also shown that voting habits are often formed during childhood and adolescence. Moreover, participation in the first three elections a young person is eligible to vote in can determine lifetime voting behavior.\n\nEvelyn Lees, a science teacher at Lincoln Middle School in Kearny, New Jersey, is volunteering with Cap, Gown, Vote\\! to register graduating high school students and tells *Teen Vogue* that “learning does not end within the classroom walls.”\n\n“As an educator, modeling active citizenry for younger generations is my obligation,” she says. ”Schools are a microcosm of the students’ environment.”\n\nStudents right now have a wealth of options when it comes [to harnessing their political power](https://www.usatoday.com/story/college/2016/09/09/these-organizations-want-your-voice-and-vote-to-be-heard/37421817/). But Lane, who is publicly supporting Cap, Gown, Vote\\! in her capacity as [executive director](https://www.nationalschoolwalkout.net/who-we-are/) of National School Walkout, says “having an organization like Cap, Gown, Vote\\! help contribute guidance and the tools to get that action is really, really important. [They’re] not just saying ‘register to vote,’ but ‘here are the tools.’”\n\nAmong those tools is a student ambassador program that enables students to serve as peer-to-peer mentors, initiate conversations about the importance of voting, and register their peers via the online toolkit. A leaderboard feature lets students and schools “compete” with others around the county to register the greatest number of students. It’s an approach similar to the “collaborative innovation” strategy being used to increase voter registration on college campuses and has been instrumental in fostering improvements in areas like homelessness and hospital patient safety, which David Bornstein discussed in [a recent *New York Times* op-ed](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/04/opinion/getting-student-power-into-the-voting-booth.html).\n\nSo far, among the several dozen high schools and colleges that have signed up to participate,   an “overwhelming” majority are public, according to Let America Vote communications director Jason Noble. Gary Simcox, a 15-year-old student activist and rising junior at Pottsgrove High School in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, recently led a voter registration drive with Cap, Gown, Vote\\!’s online toolkit, and tells *Teen Vogue*, “Our school in particular had many students who were interested in getting involved with these youth movements, but didn’t exactly have the resources or knowledge on how to do so.” Gary cites the student ambassador role as something that’s helped to improve the resources available to peers and educate them on “the importance of voter registration and democratic participation.”\n\nFor his part, Jason says he’s “flabbergasted” by politicians who refer to young people as entitled. “When I see young people getting really involved right now and really active and I see folks who criticize them, I’m just like, No they’re trying to improve their country, and they’re not going to wait until their 40s or 50s to do it. They’re going to do it right now, and all that makes them is patriots.”\n\n**Get the Teen Vogue Take.** [Sign up for the *Teen Vogue* weekly email](https://www.teenvogue.com/newsletter/subscribe?newsletterId=248815&sourceCode=articlelink).\n\n**Want more from *Teen Vogue*? Check this out:**\n\n- [The Voting Age Could Be Lowered in Response to \\#NeverAgain](https://www.teenvogue.com/story/the-voting-age-should-be-lowered-to-16-years-old)\n- [Your Guide to Voting For the First Time](https://www.teenvogue.com/story/how-to-vote-first-time)\n\n\n\n[#cneembed: script/video/5b0eced9dbc8582493000005.js?autoplay=0]\n\n"
<https://www.teenvogue.com/story/cap-gown-vote-helping-register-eligible-high-school-students>