WATERVILLE, MAINE-OCTOBER 5, 2024
Emilia Toth stands for a portrait the Diamond Building at Colby College during the Youth voting Summit in Waterville on October 5, 2024. (Photo by Michael G. Seamans/for the Maine Morning Star)
Emilia Toth had been involved in political issues even before she started college at the University of Southern Maine, but once she moved to Maine as a transfer student in 2022, she said it felt like no one on campus was talking about state or federal races, or making plans to vote in the midterm year.
She got involved with Maine Students Vote, an organization that promotes youth civic engagement that year. In 2022 and 2023, Toth and other campus fellows tabled and held events to increase student awareness about their voting rights. They worked on voter registration and let out-of-state students know they can vote in Maine using their campus address.
Now overseeing all Maine Students Vote fellows, Toth co-organized a student voting summit earlier this week at Colby College. It was attended by dozens of high school and college students interested in civic engagement and politics. Maine’s Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, Republican Sen. Rick Bennett of Oxford and Democratic Rep. Mana Abdi of Lewiston spoke at the summit, emphasizing the importance of young people’s engagement with politics and the need to vote.
Toth, a senior, said she was heartened by the growing interest and bipartisan support for voting rights she has witnessed while interacting with students on campus over the past two years. This year, Maine Students Vote fellows registered 30 students to vote on the USM campus, which she said is a big number for a campus split between two physical locations.
“There’s still an overall lack of knowledge about the rights and freedoms that come with voting,” she said.
“But working with my fellows this year, we’re seeing a lot of students who, after having conversations with us or engaging with fellow peers about it, are getting more involved, which has been really wonderful to see.”
Students at the Colby voting summit attended workshops that showed them how to get involved in local and state politics, or advocate for issues that are important to them. For example, Toth led one on bill tracking and testimony writing.
WATERVILLE, MAINE-OCTOBER 5, 2024
Students from around Maine gather at the Diamond Building at Colby College in Waterville for the Youth Voting Summit on October 5, 2024. (Photo by Michael G. Seamans/for the Maine Morning Star)
The benefit of the summit is to give students the tools to channel their passion for issues they care about into action, said Lulu Van Lonkhuyzen, a student at Camden Hills High School.
“I think there’s a lot of pent-up energy that people want to express and change, but we don’t always have the tools and resources to do that,” she said.
“So here you can learn how to, reach out to people for relational organizing, or learn how to testify. Things that we don’t always learn at school or otherwise.”
The issues that Maine students care about
Maine Morning Star spoke with roughly a dozen students at the workshops who identified issues of interest on both the state and national level. At the state level, many students were concerned with affordable housing after witnessing or personally struggling with finding housing in southern Maine.
Almost all of those students said reproductive rights was an important issue for them, especially on the national level. Students also commonly said they were paying attention to policies and debate on climate change and gun control, both nationally and in Maine.
Democracy itself has also become an issue, according to Eli Shear-Baggish, a senior at Colby.
“In the aftermath of January 6, and Donald Trump’s continued presence in national politics, it kind of felt like there’s been less room for issues that have been important in the past,” he said. “Even ones that have gotten more relevant, such as climate change.”
A group of five Portland-area high school students attending the seminar said they were all planning to pre-register to vote, which young people can do if they’re 16 or older. Pre-registering also allows them to volunteer to count ballots at the local clerk’s office, which a handful said they planned to do this year.
WATERVILLE, MAINE-OCTOBER 5, 2024
Isabella Figdor (cq) 16, of Portland, listens to Rodas Kahasay, (cq) 16, of Portland, during the youth Voting Summit at the Diamond Building at Colby College in Waterville on October 5, 2024. (Photo by Michael G. Seamans/for the Maine Morning Star)
“Maine overall has done a really good job on being open to youth perspectives and connecting to youth, I think, across the aisle,” said Isabella Figdor, a Portland high school student. “I’ve had really positive engaging experiences with our elected officials.”
When it came to issues such as immigration, students shared views that represented all sides of the political spectrum. Holt Musk, a student at Portland’s private high school, Waynflete, said he cared about immigration more than any other issue, and while he did want a presidential candidate to impose restrictions on the southern border, he also hoped for less prosecution of immigrants who might have come into the country illegally, if that was their only offense.
Students want bipartisan collaboration
The programming at the voting summit was bipartisan in keeping with the Maine Students Vote policy of not endorsing any particular candidate while tabling or canvassing for voter outreach, Toth said.
WATERVILLE, MAINE-OCTOBER 5, 2024
Mia Haley, 16, of South Portland, talks about the upcoming election at the youth Voting Summit at the Diamond Building at Colby College in Waterville on October 5, 2024. (Photo by Michael G. Seamans/for the Maine Morning Star)
Young people want more politicians to work across the aisle, particularly in national politics, many students told the Maine Morning Star. Particularly focusing on Democratic U.S. Rep. Jared Golden and independent U.S. Sen. Angus King, two high schoolers said they were heartened by their bipartisan track records.
“I think it’s very interesting that these kinds of non-partisan-ish people are getting the opportunity to represent Maine,” said Mia Haley, a Portland-area high school student. “I think that’s very important in such a polarized society that we have in the U.S. today and I’m very proud that those are the people that are running for reelection.”
YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE.