Berkeley High School junior Solomon Gutride believes that voting when you are able to is extremely important. As a 16-year-old who lives in Berkeley, he has talked to multiple people who are voting in the election and understands how crucial it is. “I think that it’s the most important thing that you can do as a citizen of this country,” Gutride said. Gutride saw signs around Berkeley promoting people who are running and looked them up. The publicity around the city helps inform teenagers on what candidates are running for and what their goals are if they are elected. Then, high school students can feel a sense of involvement in their community and see changes they want happening in their city.
BHS junior Acadia Legg voted because she firmly believes her voice is important and makes an impact. In this case, she is voting because she knows that the results of the school board election will affect her directly. Her ability to influence who will make decisions for her school is important. “We are students at (BHS), so their actions will have an impact on how we learn,” Legg said. Legg also said that because there are only two main candidates, a lot of her classmates decided not to vote. “I heard some people saying that it doesn’t matter because there were only two candidates so why should we vote?” Legg said. While she understands the point, Legg cares about the opportunity to share her voice.
BHS senior Emma Candler chose to vote because she wanted her values to be represented. She firmly believes that young people should be able to vote so that more voices can be heard regarding changes made to the city of Berkeley. “I honestly think 14-year-olds should be able to vote (in school board elections),” Candler said, “because it’s important that we’re electing people that speak for the values of our students, not only the adults in Berkeley.” It was only recently that 16-year-olds were allowed to vote for school board, but many still choose not to. Candler also said that she spends a lot of time educating herself about candidates, both talking to family and friends about their opinions and also doing her own research.
Oskar Cross, a junior at BHS, registered to vote when he got his driver’s license. This made it easier to not have to think about it until getting the ballot. This shows that the city has made it more accessible for teenagers to vote and have an input in the community. “It felt like good practice because I’m going to vote in 2028,” Cross said, echoing the many high schoolers who are already thinking about the future and how they can get involved to make an impact in politics. One problem he mentioned, however, is that the candidates sometimes do not focus on connecting with a younger audience. “I didn’t feel like there was any attempt by any candidate to appeal to 16 or 18-year-olds,” Cross said.