Liberty High Senior Trying to Register Full Senior Class to Vote

CLARKSBURG, W.Va. — One Liberty High School senior just wants to make a difference, but she’s not out to change the world herself.

Bethany Winters of Harrison County believes that new 18-year-olds need to make it their priority to register to vote and engage in their communities.

“Your politicians are not your boss,” she said on Friday’s edition of “The Gary Bowden Show” on the AJR News Network. “They are your employees. You need to make sure that the world becomes one you want to live in.”

Winters is part of a group called Inspire West Virginia, and her goal is to register 100 percent of the senior class at Liberty High School to vote.

“We tell them, ‘It’s your civic duty,'” she said. “If you want to have a voice in the world you are going to have, you need to participate. Most people are pretty eager to register. They already want to get themselves out there as citizens.”

Inspire West Virginia is a non-partisan organization that encourages civic engagement in young people through voter registration drives, presentations to educate, fostering community involvement, and trips to the State Capitol to work with legislators.

Winters estimates that 80 percent of the Liberty High School Class of 2017 is registered to vote.

“There is only a few people who maybe we haven’t seen at our voter registration drives, but our drive is to get 100 percent of our class registered,” she said.

Registration is only one part of what Winters advocates. She wants voters to do a better job of staying in touch with their elected officials.

“They can contact their legislators at any time,” she said. “They are actually required to log the information you tell them so they know what people care about.”

If Winters is able to register the entire senior class to vote, her group will receive the Jennings Randolph Award in honor of the late legislator’s history of voting rights advocacy.

“This is something I personally care about,” she said. “I think it’s important to be engaged in our community.”

Award winners will get a chance to meet with Secretary of State Mac Warner this year.

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