LITTLE ROCK – Since 1994, the Washitaw Foothills Youth Media Arts & Literacy Collective (www.WFYMALC.org) has worked to activate the youth electorate in Arkansas through its V-REP (Voter Registration, Education and Participation) Program. This year, WFYMALC has partnered with The Civics Center (www.thecivicscenter.org), a national non-partisan non-profit organization headquartered in Los Angeles, California, to introduce National High School Voter Registration Week to the State of Arkansas.
National High School Voter Registration Week has been held in over two dozen U.S. states since 2019, and it was founded by The Civics Center, a collective of current and former social studies teachers, school principals, and superintendents.
The Civics Center’s mission is to make voter registration part of every high school in America, so they provide teacher toolkits, virtual workshops, drive materials and one-on-one support to any student and/or school faculty member looking to bring non-partisan voter education and registration efforts to their school.
For the last month, WFYMALC representatives have been meeting with multiple Arkansas school superintendents, principals, and election coordinators to plan an inaugural observance of National High School Voter Registration Week here in Arkansas to prepare students for the upcoming November election.
“When you consider that during the 2020 general election, less than half of the 18-24 year-old voting population here in Arkansas were even registered to vote, you are missing quite a few young people whose voices have been silenced,” said Kwami Abdul-Bey, the co-founder of WFYMALC, “Today, there are an estimated 40,769 young people who will have turned 18 years old by election day, and if we do not do something different here in Arkansas, nearly 20,000 eligible high school students could be denied their right to vote.”
The Civics Center will provide free interactive and practical curriculum resources to help support high school students, and their teachers, organize non-partisan, youth-led voter registration drives in their high schools and the surrounding communities.
“By supporting young people as they take the lead in school-wide and community registration efforts, not only will you contribute to disrupting this trend, but your students will have the opportunity to authentically develop civic skills that will be a benefit to them as well as their communities,” said Charlotte Nichols, Director of Educator Development at The Civics Center.
Coupled with the registration drives, Abdul-Bey has worked with a few county election coordinators to establish a pilot High School Election Page Community Service Program where several dozen high school students will receive full election worker training and work at the polls from the beginning of early voting to election day. Participating high school students will receive academic credit, volunteer LEARNS Act hours, and additional excused absences for the days that they work at the polls. Additionally, those who are 18 years old will also get paid.
This pilot High School Election Page Community Service Program is based on a 2003 Arkansas law that created the Election poll workers program for high school students and the Election poll workers program for high school students. Before 2024, the only county that is known to have implemented the program is Washington County. Abdul-Bey says that all of the election coordinators with which he has met have told him that their failure to implement the program was based on a lack of necessary resources.
WFYMALC’s V-REP Program received a $10,000 electoral justice grant last month from the Southern Partners Fund to increase voting registration and participation among “silenced communities” in Arkansas. Abdul-Bey says that this is the third election cycle that they have received the grant. It has been used in the past to register jailed voters in nearly two dozen counties and then provide them with absentee ballots. This year, WFYMALC will expand this previous electoral justice programming to include assisted living facilities and high schools.
The first public school district to begin planning to bring both of these programs offered by WFYMALC is the Pulaski County Special School District where it will offer the programs at Joe T. Robinson High School, Maumelle High School, Mills University Studies High School, and Sylvan Hills High School.
For more information on the pilot High School Election Page Community Service Program or the inaugural National High School Voter Registration Week in Arkansas, contact Kwami Abdul-Bey at kwami@WFYMALC.org or 501-725-1337.
