Charles City students honored for efforts at registering students to vote

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

Students representing Charles City High School and Carrie Lane High School were honored by Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate Tuesday morning for their efforts in registering students to vote.

Pate gave students from each high school a golden trophy signifying the Carrie Chapman Catt Award, part of his program to encourage high school students to register.

“It is really special to come up here and do it right here,” Pate said, as the trophies were awarded on the steps of the Carrie Lane Chapman Catt Girlhood Home, south of Charles City.

The Girlhood Home and Museum are operated by the National 19th Amendment Society in Charles City to pay tribute to and teach about the life and activities of Chapman Catt, who was instrumental in the passage of women’s right to vote.

In addition to being at Chapman Catt’s home, Pate noted that it was the 100-year anniversary last year of the passage of the 19th Amendment, and the 50th year anniversary this year of the passage of the 26th Amendment, giving 18-year-olds the right to vote.

“Clearly when you look at the 100th anniversary of Carrie Chapman Catt’s success in getting women the right to vote, that in itself is important to recognize and celebrate, and to be able to have two schools in her home town who took this serious and got out there and made sure their young people were registered speaks volumes,” Pate said after the ceremony.

“It’s a way to both pay tribute to Carrie Chapman Catt’s legacy and it’s also a way to recognize the community here in Charles City who stepped up and encouraged their young people,” he said.

Pate said in the 2020 election, 18- to 24-year-olds voted in record numbers.

“Record numbers here in Iowa,” he said. “Ladies, you outdid the men, no surprise there. Guys, we can work a little harder and we’ll catch up.”

He said Iowa is one of the leading states in the country in voter turnout.

“I applaud that and I think it comes back to our education system. We spend a lot of time trying to instill and make sure you understand why it’s important to be involved,” Pate said.

Deacon O’Dell, a student at Carrie Lane High School, formerly referred to as the alternative high school, said it was important for him to be involved in the effort because of the history.

“Carrie Lane was the main reason women got the right to vote after all of those years of not being able to do the things that women are able to do today. I’ve just always thought it was a cool topic and I’m glad to be a part of it,” he said.

Megan White, another Carrie Lane student, said, “It’s very important because I value being an American citizen and it’s important for all of us to vote because we need to choose our leaders and lead our country in the right direction.”

She said has not been able to vote yet but is looking forward to it.

The Carrie Chapman Catt Award was established by Pate’s office in the 2019-20 school year to recognize those high schools that register at least 90% of their eligible students to vote.

Iowa made it legal in 2019 for 17-year-olds to register, although they must be 18 to vote. Once registered they can also participate in primary elections and caucuses while still 17.

“We’ve had 22 schools that received the award this year, so not everybody gets this,” Pate said, calling the 90% threshold an intentionally difficult mark to hit.

“It’s not meant to be easy. If it was it wouldn’t be an award,” he said. “When you look at it, having 22 high schools across the state who accomplished that in the middle of COVID, I think that speaks volumes.”

Pate said many of the students would be graduating and passing a threshold to a new part of their lives, and part of that threshold should be as an active citizen, as a voter.

Asking how many of them had jobs and seeing most of them raise their hands, he said, “Great. Then you already know what it’s like to get taxed, but in this case you’re being taxed without representation. That’s kind of what this country was founded on. We were a little upset with England because they were taxing us and we didn’t get a voice in what was going on.”

Pate also empathized that just a few votes can decide an election.

“I can’t think of a better example than the 2nd congressional district race here in Iowa,” he said after the ceremony. “That was won by six votes. If that doesn’t symbolize how close and how important every vote is, I don’t know what would.

“We quite often have elections in local elections for various city councils, school boards, that are actually down to where they’re ties even. So again, I can’t underscore enough, your vote does count,” he said.

Justin DeVore, director of communications and community engagement for the Charles City School District, said student Lilly Usher played a big role in coordinating the effort to register students.

“There was a big push right before elections. There was a push at the beginning of the year through her,” he said.

“Senior social studies teacher Sarah Downing offered it to all of her students multiple times throughout the year,” DeVore said.

“We’ve been doing voter registration with high school students long before the secretary of state offered this. This is just an extra added incentive to get to that 90% mark,” he said. “Sarah’s been doing this as long as she’s been social studies teacher.”