Nashville High Schoolers — Some Still Just 17 — Register To Vote At Record Pace

There’s a better chance than usual that the August election in Davidson County will be influenced by the youth vote thanks to recent success in getting young people registered.

In fact, Davidson County set a record: Election officials registered 1,551 new high school-age voters this spring. They pulled it off by visiting 23 schools and funneling paperwork to others. They broke the registration record, set last year, by more than 400 students.

Along the way, officials said they overcame some lingering misinformation. For example, teenagers can register to vote as young as age 17 to be ready once they turn 18.

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Knowing that fact made a difference for recent Overton High School graduate Teri Watkins. She signed up at a school event and knows others her age who are anxious to cast a ballot.

“I feel like our generation is a generation that cares and wants to see the city or the country grow, and wants to see change,” she said. “We are the future.”

Signing up voters face-to-face comes with another perk: it lets those young people vote absentee, which helps if they’re headed off to college.

Officials said they also found some 18-year-olds willing to sign up as part-time pollworkers.

“We have 160 polling places on election day and it takes over 1,300 poll officials to staff those,“ said Nancy DeKalb, spokeswoman for the Davidson County Election Commission. “So this is a way for high school students to get involved in the process and it’s also a way for them to earn a little extra money.”

The most new voters came from three high schools: Hume-Fogg, Antioch, and Pearl Cohn. Among private schools, Harpeth Hall led the way.

Anyone interested in becoming a pollworker can download an application at www.nashville.gov/vote, then click on “poll worker information,“ or call the election commission at 615-862-4372.