As you all know, we have a presidential election today. No matter what candidate you’re rooting for, we can all agree that this election has caused huge controversy. Voting in every election is extremely important, but it is absolutely crucial in this year’s presidential election. The results of this election will impact every single one of us: healthcare, handling of COVID-19, plans for dealing with climate change, and equity across the population are all going to be impacted by the results of this election season. 

As high school students, the majority of us are unable to vote, but we should still do our best to use our voices to advocate for what we believe is valuable. You should do your best to stay educated and share what you learn with friends and family who are registered to vote and encourage them to do so in whatever way is best for them. To find more information on where to vote or more information about voting in general, vote.org is a great place to start! 

Another way to get involved is by phone banking. Phone banking is pretty enjoyable and very easy. All you do is make calls to people (following a script) and answer their questions while doing your best to sway them to vote for whoever you’re phone banking for. It can be for a senate, congress member, presidential candidate, and many others. Jada Owens, a sophomore, says that “I phone bank for Biden every Tuesday evening with hundreds of other kids nationally. We have helped inform some people who were misinformed before and have swayed a lot of voters. We focus on swing states because those are most important and it’s definitely easier to turn a swing state blue, then it is to return a red state.” You can also get involved by becoming a poll worker; it’s a great way for young people to help out with the election. Poll workers prepare the polling place for voting, make sure the voting equipment is sanitized, assist voters if necessary, and much more. If you need any information about becoming a poll worker, www.elections.ny.gov/BecomeaPollworker is a great place to start. While teenagers can’t vote in the election directly, it is still valuable to get involved in any way that we can.