Oakland students engage peers to vote in school board elections

For the first time in state history, Oakland and Berkley students will head to the polls in November to cast ballots in their respective school board elections.

Students at Lattitude High School in Oakland have become educators, teaching peers about the importance of voting and how to pre-register for the upcoming school board elections.

"I know that people are literally engaged, so then they are like, I want to vote. They say, 'Oh really, 16 and 17-year-olds can now vote,' and I was like yeah, and literally half the class went all the way over there to pre-register," said Abrahr Ahmed, a Latitude Highschool senior teaching a special voting class.

The goal is to register 100 new youth voters for this year's elections. The only requirements are that they be 16 or 17 years old, Oakland residents, and U.S. citizens.

"Young people from 18 to 24 are the lowest demographic to actually vote. Youth Vote is actually about changing that," said Kimi Kean, co-founder of Families in Action for Quality Education.

Families in Action is a group dedicated to working with schools citywide to promote youth voting. Kean's team provided the curriculum for the voting class Ahmed is part of, and jp[es by engaging potential young voters will not only create lifelong voters but also inspire their parents to vote.

"It's important because it's getting them ready for the future. If you start at a young age, I feel like people have a lot to say," Ahmed said.