The Social Studies National Honors Society has planned a voter registration drive in Geneva High School’s cafeteria during all lunch periods. It is available to all students who will be 18 prior to the general election next year. Social Studies students and staff members encourage students to participate in this drive to register to vote and learn about the impacts of a vote.

Voter registration drives are not new to Geneva High School, and most have been organized by Mr. Hahn who is the Social Studies Department Chair and U.S. Government teacher at GHS.

“I went through a process to become a deputy registerer and that allows me to do the registration through the high school,” teacher Mr. Hahn said.

Being in charge of the Social Studies Department has given Mr. Hahn the chance to register new people at Geneva. More than 150 people were able to register in these drives right before the presidential election.

The United States has voter registration to keep track of people who are qualified to vote. “It is important to be able to express your voice,” teacher Mrs. Steely said, “Your vote is your voice,”

Voting registration is a simple process. Students need to be 18 prior to the next election and bring their drivers license or know the last 4 digits of their social security number. Then Mr. Hahn fills out a form which only takes a few minutes.

“We have voter registration here at school to make it easy for students to do and also to remind them that it is a part of their civic duty,” Mrs. Steely said.

Students at GHS have the opportunity to register to vote and learn about the impacts of voting. It is a valuable tool, not only for high schoolers but for anybody that is eligible to vote.

“Doesn’t matter what your voice is you can be pro this anti that, but it is really important to use your voice and voting is one way to do that,” Mr. Hahn said.

Young people might not realize they have a lot at stake, and the voter registration drives prepare them to act on their civic duty.

“If you’re going to be involved in our democracy, I think it’s important to have a voice and voting allows you do have that voice,” he said.

Problems that are directly related to Geneva and the local area are impactful and registering to vote allows students to learn more about them.

“We should focus on the local stuff that really affect us, and we don’t, everybody’s guilty even the adults are guilty of not paying attention as much to that” he said.

The voter registration that the school has organized has increased the number of people that are voting.

“At the end the impact is, there’s more people voting, in theory there’s more people engaged in the process and more people exercising their voice,” Mr. Hahn said.

Voter registration will be in the cafeteria available to students this Tuesday and Wednesday during lunch periods 4, 7 and 8.