By TARA JENNINGS, Staff Writer
November 13, 2018
Even one week after Election Day, most of the media’s attention remains focused on covering the various candidates and the results of their campaigns. These midterm elections (referred to as such due to the fact that it takes place in the middle of a president’s four years in office) had the potential to reshape the Senate as well as the House of Representatives, but many people still chose not to vote. To try to increase voter turnout, organizations have often hosted events to help people register to vote or provide them with any information they might need, which is how North Brunswick Township High School’s Voter Drive came to be.
On Tuesday, October 9, 2018, the League of Women’s Voters came to NBTHS to help students with their voter registration papers. Ms. Rutsky, who teaches the AP Government and Politics class at NBTHS, played a big role in organizing the voter registration drive, contacting Sheila Mazar, the head representative of the League, to see if she could help. Mazar responded by volunteering her time―as well as the time of six other members of the organization―during students’ lunches on October 9, answering questions and helping voters register at a table set up in the middle of the Commons. Members of Ms. Rutsky’s class, meanwhile, went around to students during their own lunch period, convincing seniors to register and helping them fill out all the required information.
When asked about the voter registration drive, Ms. Rutsky said, “I felt like it went really great! I wish we’d had some more time to set up in the commons, but overall I was very happy with it.” Members of Ms. Rutsky’s class had various opinions―some felt like it was easy to convince seniors to register, while others had to answer a lot of questions―but ultimately, almost one hundred students registered during the drive. Many of these students were not able to vote in the upcoming election, due to the fact that one can register to vote at seventeen but must be eighteen years old to actually participate in elections, but for the League of Women’s Voters and the members of AP Government, the registration of one hundred new voters was a huge success.

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