TDS Gets Out the Vote

In an American age of misinformation unlike any other, civic education is a modern necessity. Social media algorithms feed polarized, often fallacious content to voters on both sides of the aisle. On another hand, voting rights have recently been threatened en masse, with legislative action making the path to the ballot box treacherous for millions of Americans. According to a 2024 ACLU analysis, more than 400 anti-voter bills have been introduced in 48 states over the last few years, challenging citizens’ abilities to register to vote and actually cast their ballots. New York state is among the few outliers, accepting none of these restrictions. Crucially, New York, along with 50% of the nation, allows teenagers aged 16+ to preregister to vote.

Ike L. ‘26 has sought to bring the voter pre-registration effort to Trevor. For this year’s introductory issue of the Trevor Dragon, I sat down with Ike to discuss his perspective on the matter. Ike started the Voter Registration Club with the aid of the Civics Center, a California-based voter registration organization. He got the idea through a Trevor connection. “When my sister, who’s also at Trevor, wrote her d’var Torah speech for her bat mitzvah, she got involved with the Andrew Goodman Foundation,” he remembered. Of course, Andrew Goodman is an alumnus of the Walden School, one of Trevor’s predecessors. “I was inspired by his work,” Ike added. “The Civics Center is one of [the Foundation’s] partners, and it took off from there.”

But things have changed slightly for this year. “Now that we have our own resources and know-how, we’ve somewhat separated from the Center and we’re running our own drives.” Those drives are the centerpiece of the club. A table is set up on the sidewalk outside of the school building (this fall, the drives were on Thursday, October 17th, Friday, October 18th, and Thursday, October 24th - more drives will be announced at a later date) where the Voter Registration Club teaches teenagers to pre-register to vote. “You just have to be 16 and a resident of New York State. It’s so simple,” Ike explained. “With just a driver's permit, driver's license, social security card, or passport, and a few minutes of your time, you can get ahead of the game.” But Ike’s heard all those who reason that they can just register later. He doesn’t agree. “It’s just so much easier to not put it off. The forms are simple to fill out on our phone and you can get quickly set up.” When asked what he’d tell a skeptic, Ike had two main points. “Number one, it just simplifies your life. At one point, you’re going to get registered to vote. Not to mention, doing it now can vastly simplify the process of changing your address when you're in college.” Number two will likely be more persuasive: “It makes your parents happy. So what reason do you have to not do it?” The Voter Registration Club can be reached with any questions during their B day Community Time meetings.