Grimes visits MCHS seniors to emphasize importance of voter registration

Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergran Grimes conducts an exercise with Marshall County High School seniors Wednesday in the Performing Arts Center at MCHS in Draffenville. Grimes spoke with seniors about the importance of voting and walked them through ways to register online.

September is voter registration month, and Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes is looking to make certain everyone knows it.

Grimes traveled to Marshall County High School Wednesday to meet with the senior class and talk to them about the importance of exercising the right to vote, as well as the requirements to register to vote and how students could do so. In particular, Grimes discussed govotekentucky.com, the state’s online voter registration site implemented last year, and walked students through its use. Grimes introduced students with smartphones in their possession to the app and helped those there in completing the registration process.

It’s an important outreach effort, she said, not just during voter registration month. About 30 percent of Kentuckians remained unregistered, and many of those were young residents.

“Today’s work here in Marshall County, it’s specific, it’s targeted,” Grimes said. “It’s voter registration month, and we want to make sure our newest voters are eligible and they’re able and participating in the system. … When we have 40 percent of our nation not participating in our elections, we need to be working to make it easier to be a part of this process, while also protecting the integrity and security of this process.”

According to voter registration statistics on the Kentucky Board of Elections website, there were 306,919 registered voters aged 17-24 in the state. About 50 percent of those turned out to cast a vote in the 2016 general election. In the 34-county first congressional district – of which Marshall County is a part – 48.4 percent of the 47,288 registered voters aged 17-24 voted in the 2016 general election, according to KBE stats.

Grimes stressed to students the importance of voting not just in the larger elections but in the local and state elections, too. Grimes told students that if they wanted to ensure their thoughts and personal values were represented the needed to vote, and to vote they first had to be registered.

“The hope is that those that didn’t register that are eligible take a step forward,” Grimes said. “That you will. That those that didn’t take the time to show up even though they were registered, that they will. And that those that think maybe presidential elections are what matters really realize it’s every election that matters, that determines what’s going to happen. … This is a public school that we’re in; the funding for this school, do you know who determines it? Folks in Frankfort, and at the county level.”

MCHS Principal Amy Waggoner said as an educator she felt it was a valuable lesson for students, and one that they were more likely to retain if an elected official came to personally engage them.

“I told the students, it is their right – but it’s also their privilege – to vote,” Waggoner said. “And they are the future; they’re going to determine what’s going to happen in our country, and it starts right here.”

Waggoner said it was the first time for a speaking event with Grimes of this nature, but the school had held voter registration events in the past. Members of both local Republican and Democratic parties had conducted voter drives at the school, Waggoner said, and school officials had received paper registration forms that were distributed to seniors in the past. However, she said she felt the new online system would prompt a better turnout because of the ease and quicker access.

“And what’s really neat is that they’ve had an event with an elected official who came to their high school encouraging them,” Waggoner said. “So it’s kind of something to remember when they register to vote.”

For more information on registration requirements, online registration and voter statistics, visit elect.ky.gov.