Chandler High students help with voter registration

Chandler High School is taking what staff call an innovative approach to voter registration.

CHS staff said, in a news release, that it’s among the first schools in the East Valley to train students as junior voter registration deputies.

This civic centered program was brought in by Kelsey Brown, an International Baccalaureate History/IB Personal and Professional Skills teacher at CHS, through her involvement with the Center for the Future of Arizona and the School Participatory Budgeting district initiative.

During the 2023-24 school year, CHS students received comprehensive voter registration training from Maricopa County staff, equipping them to become voter registration resources for their community.

CHS senior Chloe Hallin said her class plans to show this year’s juniors, the Class of 2026, how to register voters.

“The plan Ms. (Kelsey) Brown has is to have a running list of students who can do this — register people to vote,” Hallin said. “We are all seniors, and we are going to show the new juniors how to do this and then they can show it, and it will hopefully have a lasting impact.”

Before the voter registration deadline, Hallin went classroom to classroom, asking students if they are age 18 or if they will be 18 by Election Day (Nov. 5). If they answered yes, she then asked if they are registered to vote.

During the second annual CUSD College Fair on Sept. 18 at Hamilton High School, Hallin and two other CUSD students that are also deputized, completed six new voter registrations.

“These students are learning that democracy takes work,” Brown said. “It’s a lot of leg-work for people to go out there. This is built on volunteerism. If we don’t have people out there trying to get people to register to vote, then a lot of this doesn’t happen.”

Junior deputies helped register 147 CHS students during the CHS School Participatory Budgeting vote day, April 26, with the help of Maricopa County Recorder’s Office staff.

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