Early voting for Illinois primaries begins today and in the past weeks, Knox County Clerk Scott Erickson has been working to boost young voter turnout with the help of local students.
A change in Illinois voting age requirements a few years ago made 17-year-olds who would turn 18 before the general election eligible to vote in the primaries.
Erickson is getting assistance from some local high schoolers to get those eligible students registered.
When visiting ROWVA High School to speak with and register a social studies class, he was approached by students Annabeth Gibbons and Maci Kalb who for a senior project wanted to register as many young people as possible
Erickson says so far their efforts have yielded about 150 students registered after visiting Knoxville, Williamsfield and ROWVA high schools with Abingdon and Galesburg trips planned for the upcoming week.
He tells WGIL the aim is to sign up around 300 students.
“The hope is to try to get them hooked on the voting process early so that they stick with that and can bump some of these registration and voting numbers up over the years,” Erickson says.
The last day to register to vote in the Mar. 15 primaries is Feb. 16.
Gibbons, Kalb and Erickson will all join Terry Cavanaugh on Galesburg’s Evening News tonight at 5:10 p.m.
