Clayton County’s Youth Commission hosted a party Tuesday to boost involvement in the upcoming presidential election by inviting young people to become registered voters.
On the campus of Clayton State University, a DJ blasts popular Hip-Hop music as people slowly trickle into one of the rooms in the student activities center.
Throughout the space, there are several tables and games like cornhole and giant connect four lining the walls. Youth commissioners in purple shirts buzz through to talk with students.
“You know, not a lot of youth get involved in politics and stuff like that,” said Kadiatou Diallo, an 18-year-old youth commission member who had just registered to vote.
She believes people around her age are vital to this election. That’s why the commission brought the opportunity to register over Clayton State’s campus.
“Right now, we need a lot of the youth to get involved with it … [with] what’s going on in the world, it’s a lot of things we need to get rid of and stuff we need to add,” Diallo added.
Workers and volunteers with the county’s board of elections assisted attendees as they filled out applications and watched demonstrations on a real ballot-casting machine.
“Folks can get a real feel, especially for first-time voters, of what does it look like to actually cast a ballot so that they can be ready,” said Alaina Reaves, the recently elected District 1 Clayton County commissioner.
Voter registration ends on Oct. 7, with early voting beginning a week later on Oct. 15.
According to some of the youth commissioners, getting registered is a step closer to addressing their concerns around gun control and women’s rights.
Newly registered voter and Clayton State student Jayse Yelder agrees. He says he’s motivated by the potential long-term effects of this year’s election.
“I never really took it too seriously until now, given the fact that this has something to do with me, and this will make a big effect on me,” Yelder said. “Honestly, and truthfully, between my peers and us talking about it as well as other people educating me, it just seemed really big.”
