“Oh, um, not right now,” a nod, a glance, or a brisk walk away.

I’m familiar with all those reactions now—they’re not uncommon when you’re walking around your city with a clipboard, registering voters. Though voter registration in the field is very important, getting someone with a destination in mind to stop and pay attention is a bit harder when you’re a stranger.

However, I’m also familiar with conversations like this:

“Oh, hey, Sara!”

“Imogen! You’re going to be 18 by next November, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Do you want to register to vote? It’s super easy, it only takes like five minutes!”

“Sure!”

That was a typical conversation during a voter registration drive at my high school. My classmates knew me, they trusted me, and they registered to vote because of it. You don’t have to take my word for it, though—I asked some of the classmates whom I registered to vote how they felt about the process.

My peers felt that the process was easy when done with me at school.

“It was easy and convenient because it was at school,” James says. “I have voted in every election I could [after registering].”

James isn’t the only one who felt that the experience was easier when done at school with someone he knew. Several others mentioned that the experience was easy. Klara cited location, saying “The opportunity to register was somewhere I was every day,” while Phoenix cited personal connection: “Registering to vote with Sara showed me how easy it is to get registered. I saw whole friend groups getting registered together because we were able to witness how easy it was!”

Phoenix also added, “[Sara’s] passion, being someone my age with similar interests, showed me that as young people, we ALL have the duty to vote, especially if we want to create change.”

Like Phoenix, many others agreed that peer-to-peer voter registration made them more likely to vote.

“I had good faith that it was something worth doing since a community member was running it,” said Ian, another 2024 graduate. “I feel confident and inspired to vote in this election and all elections in the future, especially since I now understand the great power of a community when it is driven and led well!” 

“I’m definitely more likely to vote, [I] just sent in my ballot for the primaries yesterday!” Klara told me.

Lauren echoed her classmates’ sentiments, adding that “seeing all your closest friends coming together to make a difference in the world is truly inspiring.”

“I wish there were more voter registration drives run by students’ peers,” Lauren told me. “It would absolutely increase voter participation.”

And you can run your own voter registration drive, too!

I ran a total of three voter registration drives at my high school, and thanks to Civic Engagement Beyond Voting and The Civics Center, I had all the support that I needed. If you’re a high school student or faculty member, running a voter registration drive at your school makes a huge difference in your community. If you know a high school student or faculty member, send this article to them!

Sign up to run your voter registration drive at https://bit.ly/CEBVVoterReg.