At 17 years old, in the midst of their junior year, most high school students' main concerns revolve around grades and love interests. Even the more proactive students are often more concerned with their post-graduation plans than becoming politically active.
Rarely does one find a student like Chris Deitch, a 17-year-old junior at Providence High School, who has decided to actively pursue voter registration for eligible first time voters at his school, and is hoping to expand his efforts to the entire Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools system.
Inspired by his research on the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC) and the decision by North Carolina legislators to do away with preregistration, which once automatically added around 50,000 teens each year to the voter rolls as they turned 18, Deitch began trying to educate his fellow students on their voting rights and register more first-time voters in the absence of preregistration.
With help and advice from Democracy North Carolina, the League of Women Voters and some teachers, he began hosting voter registration drives at the events where you'll find a lot of kids his age: at testing centers and football games. As can be imagined, it's been an uphill battle. Creative Loafing chatted with Deitch about whether the lack of interest from his peers has slowed him down. The answer should be obvious.
Creative Loafing: Were you politically active before this experience?
Chris Deitch: Not very seriously. I pay attention to what's going on in the news, but when I was learning about NPVIC and researching the electoral college and voting rights, learning all these different statistics, I realized just how bad the first-time voter turnout is and I thought that's what I need to do. I could've gone and done an internship at a government office or worked with other organizations but I thought that this would be a thing that would impact people around me the most.
How crucial was it that the state has done away with preregistration?
That's one of the things that I feel is most important. With the elimination of that, it's caused less and less teens to be involved. Typically, 16 and 17 year olds are sophomores and juniors in high school and that's when we're learning about the government and how it works so it's already on our mind. I really think that bringing preregistration back and having that in place would get more of the high-schoolers and youth around Charlotte to get more involved and to really pay attention to what's going on and realize how much of an impact they can have.
Where did you start trying to get teens registered to vote?
I started at Providence High football games, because a lot of the seniors like to go to all the games during their last year. That's the biggest numbers of eligible voters, plus there would be parents coming in that could register. We did four games, and over that time only 10 people registered.
Why do you think you were being ignored?
It wasn't necessarily that they ignored me it's just that they weren't interested in it at that time. Rather than take a few minutes to quickly register to vote for the president this year, they'd rather go get a good spot in the seats for the game. The students don't understand the importance of their vote.
Do they not understand or do they not care?
The thing was that it wasn't necessarily that the students weren't interested in registering and learning about the whole process, it's that a lot of them had no idea they could register because they haven't turned 18 yet. A law in North Carolina says a 17-year-old may register to vote if they will be 18 by voting day, which is Nov. 8. 2016. I'm 17, I have registered now but I didn't know this originally and neither do they. That's one of the things that's keeping a lot of young people from registering, is that they think you have to be 18 to register, but they don't.
How did you adapt once the football season ended?
I wanted to do more registration and continue to get people involved, so I started doing registration at the ACT and SAT testing being held at my school. Even then, it seemed people were still unaware even though I had a large sign saying that they could register if they weren't 18. A lot of them didn't seem to be interested. I would tell them it only takes a minute or two to come register, and they'd say, 'I cant. I'm in a real hurry," or just say they're not interested. It's really sad to see that even though they can have an impact on our community and everyone else around them that they don't take interest in something so important.
What comes next?
I am currently trying to get a day scheduled for a CMS-wide voter registration drive. Any one can do it. Any U.S. citizen can hold a drive and register students. I feel that would be a very good way to get a lot of high school students involved throughout Mecklenburg County. I am currently working to get in contact with the superintendent. There isn't much to know; you only need about an hour or so during the lunch periods that most schools have and it can be a quick and easy effort to get more students involved.
Is it just that teenagers don't care about this type of thing?
When you think about it, it seems like a lot of them don't because a lot of kids are lazy, honestly, as I am too. Thinking about something that's so far away seems like something you don't want to spend time doing. But it's not that they're not interested, it's just that they aren't aware. If every kid who is eligible to vote this year knew that they were and had a place with easy access to go and register, I think a lot more kids would be active in the political system. Rather than kids just not being interested and thinking it's a big waste of time, it's just the fact that they don't have anything that prompts them to talk about it and get involved on a regular basis.