How Illinois Teens Changed State Law So They Could Fit Voting Into Their Busy Lives

The students at Thornton Fractional North High School outdoors Chicago aspire to vote. However they have sports practice, homework, after-school jobs, siblings to care for, or simply no way to get to the polls at all. So, they determined to change the law and make it easier for them to cast their ballots once they knew they could: Throughout school hours.


On January 23, Illinois governor J. B. Pritzker signed Senate Bill 1970, which goes into effect June 1 and will give 18-year-olds up to two hours to vote throughout school hours for a general election, and some 17-year-olds the same time for primaries — much in the same way employers are needed to permit their staff time off to vote. It’s up schools to decide which two hours students can miss, nevertheless doing so won’t count as an absence from class. And yes it all started because students at Thornton Fractional North and Thornton Fractional South High Schools reached out to their representatives online.


“It shows the power of social media,” State Senator Elgie Sims told MTV News, remembering that students had first asked him to join a local Parade to the Polls voter registration event in 2018 that wasn’t without its hiccups. “There were some who did not want kids have the ability to have time off from school. There were some who, even as soon as we got to the polling place, they attempted to discourage the kids from voting,” he mentioned. Not every school in the area participates in Parade to the Polls, either. “It demonstrated to me that we required to be more aggressive in our efforts to protect their franchise and encourage them to vote,” he added.


Over 1.67 million young people aged 15-24 call Illinois residence, according To America census, and protecting their ability to vote is important. Voting is habitual, and the younger someone is once they begin to vote, the more likely it is that they plan to continue the habit later on in life. (One study by Cambridge University Press even found that any time young people vote, their parents are more likely to vote, also) However there really are plenty of reasons why fewer young people vote than any other age order, and their lack of representation at the polls can impact who gets elected and what issues those newly elected officials prioritize throughout their time in office.


Sims, who grew up in Chicago, vividly remembers what it seemed like to vote as soon as he was 18, given that his parents habitually emphasized the significance of doing so to him and his siblings. He right now prioritizes paying it forward to his own children, and to the young people in his district, who were important in the fight to change the law so that they have the same voting rights as any other adults. Case in point, he tapped those same high school students to help write and inform the new bill.


“I specifically wanted to create ensure that we stood by these young people,” he mentioned, adding that it was key that lawmakers also listen to the bill’s creators as soon as it was presented to the committee. “We made sure they came to Springfield to testify. I can contributor, although the ideal voices were their own. And those young people, they were focused. They told their stories. They were authentic. It was really amazing.”


Among those who testified were 18-year-old Michael Shipley and 17-year-old Lizbeth Velazquez, students at Thornton Fractional North whose academic and personalized obligations could be daunting on any day, let alone an election day. A senior looking to major in psychology in college, Michael has a loaded schedule that includes Advanced Placement classes, playing three sports while in the school year, and sustaining his place on the honor roll. A bill like SB1970 was a long time coming for him: He started thinking about young peoples’ impact on the polls in the wake of the 2016 election, if he was a high school freshman. And the new law, he told MTV News, “initiates the step for us to go vote as a substitute opposed to the system relying on us.”


“Being able to go with each other, marching there, that gives us students more structure,” Michael mentioned. “And that puts us in the habit of voting once there’s an election.”


The law wasn’t without its detractors: Some lawmakers, like Representative Mark Batinick, questioned why students should have the same voting access rights as working adults any time the bill was brought to the state Residence floor last October. Even so, both Michael and Lizbeth felt empowered once it came time to share their stories at the state capital in Springfield.


“We discussed about being heard, and around how us students in high school are just as powerful as any other adult,” Lizbeth, a junior and honor roll student, told MTV News. “It was astonishing have the ability to share that, so that lawmakers can know that students need to go vote, too.”


“It felt like my voice really mattered and so they were actually listening to my voice and giving me a chance to talk,” Michael added.


The bill ultimately passed both the state Senate and House; this January, it was signed into law by Governor Pritzker, who visited Thornton Fractional North High School to prepare things official. And while neither Michael nor Lizbeth previously believed they were capable of informing and passing legislation of their own, they’re not taking their power for granted: They both count on voting in the November 2020 election, and every other election immediately after that.


“The power of your voice is important,” Sims mentioned, noting that he was particularly impressed by the way young people used social media to amplify their voices and codify their dreams as law. “I view leadership as a relay race: You run your leg of the race, then you pass the baton. And at some point, I am going to pass the baton to these young people to carry leadership on and ensure we have the state that they expect and deserve.”