Student Council is hosting an opportunity for students ages 16 and older to pre-register or register to vote for U.S. elections during all three lunches on Thursday, Feb. 15.

Members of the Northborough and Southborough Town Clerk Offices are coming to Algonquin to help, as well as student volunteers from the National Social Studies Honor Society. Students wishing to be registered are required to know the last four digits of their social security number, or their driver’s license or permit identification number. The organizers hope this opportunity will lead to increased civic engagement. 

“There’s a poster that I’ve seen around the school in a couple places, including the nurses office, that lists the responsibilities of an Algonquin student and one of them is civic engagement,” Student Council Secretary senior Cass Melo said. “The ability to participate in a democratic action such as voting is really important because most students are not going to serve on jury duty and are not going to be running for political office themselves. Being able to vote is a really good way to interact with your community and to make a change in the states and across the country.” 

Massachusetts has an automatic voter registration system that has been in place since January of 2021, and you can check to see if you are registered here. Melo believes everyone who is old enough to vote should register and participate in elections. 

“Signing up to register to vote is very simple, very easy and takes very little time, and is a great way to be a part of the community and make change,” Melo said.

This is the second year ARHS has offered voter registration during school, and Melo hopes this practice will continue.

“I would assume that since we got a lot of people registered last year, the numbers might be a little lower this year, but I hope that the sentiment itself will at least continue and students will continue to remain engaged and voting drives will be able to continue in our area,” Melo said.

Editor’s Note: This article contains sources who are members of The Harbinger’s Editorial Board. Such members have been removed from this article’s editorial process in order to maintain fair and bias-free reporting.