'It's on us now': Greater Cleveland students prepare to vote for the ...

Elizabeth Smith, 18, didn’t care much about politics when she started at John F. Kennedy High School in Cleveland’s Lee-Harvard neighborhood. Then, in her junior year, she joined an extracurricular civics program at her school called Civics 2.0.

Now a senior, Smith’s interest in politics has only grown as Election Day draws closer. She will vote for the first time in November.

“It’s on us now,” she said. “It’s our generation.”

Smith joined dozens of students from high schools across Greater Cleveland for a Youth Voting Summit at the Cleveland Public Library on Thursday. Students cast ballots in a mock election complete with a scanner from the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections, electing Spiderman as the best superhero. Meanwhile, local government officials and voting advocates urged those eligible to cast real ballots in November. 

“I see myself in a lot of these students,” said Yvonne Dortch, the voting rights coordinator for Cuyahoga Community College’s Department of Health and Human Services. “I didn’t feel like my vote counted towards anything. … Whether or not they decide to go [vote] or not, they’ve heard it from a different perspective, from somebody who’s had lived experience.”

Dortch helped organize the event in partnership with Katie Montgomery, the director of government relations at Cuyahoga Community College. The event dates back eight years, when former Cuyahoga County Council Member Michael Houser created it. 

The young people whom Signal Cleveland spoke with said they appreciated learning the process of voting, but they didn’t need anyone to sell them on its importance. Many were already invested in politics – both local and national.

Smith sees voting and civic engagement both as avenues to solve issues in her community. In Civics 2.0, she and other participating students talked with the families of young people killed in shootings. She’d like to see her community free of guns, she said.

She cares deeply about education, too, defending the inclusion of African American history in school curriculum.

“If all the other races are able to have their history, why can’t we?” Smith said. “Our history goes back even before we were slaves. I feel like, if other races are able to have their history, we should be able to have ours. We should be able to have more opportunities. We should be able to have better schools and have teachers that actually care.”

Her classmate at John F. Kennedy and fellow Civics 2.0 student Amaiya Walker praised her teacher Bruce Ransom for getting her interested in government. If it weren’t for him, she said, she wouldn’t be at the Youth Voting Summit. She appreciated the event, she said, because no one had taught her how to actually cast a ballot yet.

Walker will vote for the first time in November. She has a lot on her mind as she looks toward adulthood. She wants to elect political leaders that she believes will make America’s future brighter.

“We deserve a candidate who offers us sustainability, not only as the kids, but also the American people,” she said. “Housing is not even affordable. We feel like, OK, we’re getting of age, and we’re pushed out into this world that’s already in disaster mode.”

At Laurel High School in Shaker Heights, students can participate in an election committee: an extracurricular, bipartisan group of students that meet to talk about the election and political issues.

Tristan Williams, a junior at Laurel, appreciates the space to talk through politics at school.

“We kind of just challenge everyone to, like, when you are challenging something, to challenge the idea and not the person,” Williams said. “Because everyone’s young, and some people have different views or they don’t even know what their views are yet.”

Faye Moledina, a senior at Laurel who will vote for the first time in November, has a keen eye on environmental issues. She and her classmate Ivey Williams, also a first-time voter, work with an organization called Action for the Climate Emergency (ACE) to support legislation related to solar power and air quality.

“I’m definitely feeling like the environmental state of our Earth is first and foremost,” Ivey Williams said. “I’m a little bit disappointed that Vice President Harris is kind of backing down on her anti-fracking stance.”

Ja’Nia Johnson, a senior at Glenville High School, said she cares most about feeling safe in her community.

To politicians, she said: “You have to see the people’s needs or wants. You have to listen, that’s the most important thing. I feel like you need to be about the people. You can’t just do yourself, you got to look at it as an everybody type of thing.”

For Lakewood High School seniors Dylan Card and Titus McAlvey, the economy is top of mind as they consider whom to cast their first votes for.

“Going into being an adult with home ownership and insurance stuff, prices of cars, taxes, everything, it’s like, I don’t want to drown myself and not be able to do anything,” McAlvey said.

“The right leaders will be able to, not make it perfect, but at least do more than not doing anything.”

K-12 Education and Youth Reporter (he/him) As a local visual journalist, I see my purpose in building relationships as much as reporting news. I’ve made my most impactful work only after pouring myself into my community.

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