CHARLOTTE, N.C. — There is less than a month before the 2022 Midterm Elections take place and the deadline to register to vote is quickly approaching.
Friday is the last day people in North Carolina will be able to register to vote in this election, and the Mecklenburg County Board of Elections is doing all it can to get people signed up to head to the polls on Nov. 8, including the youngest eligible citizens.
A voter registration drive was held on Thursday at South Mecklenburg High School where students had the chance to discuss why registering is important.
"There are plenty of students here who are 18 and eligible to vote in the midterm elections and we want them to understand how important it is for them to vote in that election,” said Bella Naspinksi, a senior at South Mecklenburg High School.
The latest data shows there are around 7.3 million people registered to vote in North Carolina, which is an increase of about 28,000 compared to the number of registered voters in the 2020 Presidential Election.
There are many eligible voters like those at South Mecklenburg High School who represent the youngest possible voters in the nation.
Naspinski said many of her classmates did not know they needed to register to vote, so she and other peers are efforting to educate students on this matter. In conjunction with the Charlotte Hornets' "Swarm the Polls" initiative, they held a registration drive during lunchtime.
“It’s really important to us to get it out to our classmates because we are the youth voice and the next generation of voters," said Sidney Griffin, a senior at South Mecklenburg High School. "[We] will be influencing policy decisions at both the local and federal level.”
Part of the registration drive was geared toward students that are 16 or 17 to register now so that they will be eligible to vote when they turn 18. Similarly, politically charged students are looking at students not even old enough to register in an effort to open a conversation about being civically engaged.
“I think a lot of students know about presidential elections and they’re willing to at least vote in those type of elections," said Naspinski. "So we’ll typically talk about how it's just as important to vote in the local elections as it is in the larger ones.”
Anyone interested in registering to vote can do so through the DMV's website or print out a form and bring it to the Mecklenburg County Board of Elections by Friday at 5 p.m.
Additionally, you can register on the same day you plan to vote during the early voting period from Oct. 20 to Nov. 5.