Jessica Hipona, a BHS senior, emphasizes the importance of taking advantage of the availability of democracy, “I think the democratic process is a very important part of deciding what happens to us in the future, and (the government) directly impacts us.” Voting is also personally important for Hipona. “Having been involved in different kinds of government myself, I think it's really important to have especially youth voices (involved),” Hipona said.
Linus Hohmeyer, a BHS sophomore, highlights the importance of being able to choose government representatives. “People who are being governed should want the people they are being governed by,” Hohmeyer said. “It’s important to me because then I'm really participating in democracy, and I think it's just a really cool system.”
Joseph Hegarty is a junior at BHS. Hegarty believes in acknowledging one’s reasoning for making the decision to vote or not. “I feel like not voting is actually a completely fine thing,” Hegarty said, “Except if you do want a change, but you decide not to talk about it. Then that's when there's an actual loss happening.”
Taylor Kelso is a Berkeley High School junior who believes voting correlates to social change. “I think voting is important because it helps you see and make the changes that you want, and helps improve ... people's lives.” On the topic of not voting, Kelso said, “You personally don't have a voice to make change, and that means sometimes (your voice is) left out of the picture.”
Elijah Suring, a BHS junior, said, “I don't think (voting) is important. I think the system is inherently rigged against the people and voting will not change anything.” The effects of not voting, Suring says, depends on what you do instead. “If you join a party and organize, and bring power to the community, then you can achieve a lot more. But if you do nothing, then you do nothing,” Suring said.
Yancy Alegre-Pacheco, a BHS junior, speaks to the importance of voting as a means to enhance one’s political voice. “Voting is important to me because I can get my voice out there, and even the smallest little increment helps me have representation,” Alegre-Pacheco said. Speaking to the importance of voting for the whole community, Alegre-Pacheco said, “Voting is important because everybody has their own point of view ... and if you don't vote, what you think is not going to be represented.”
This article was written to accompany the article "History in the making: Berkeley and Oakland allow 16 and 17-year-olds to vote for school board".