High school administration preparing students to vote

On Friday Dec. 14, Windsor High School’s administration gave
seniors a chance to register to vote. Superintendent Steve
Herrington said approximately half the seniors old enough to
register have done so.
“I wanted to see how many seniors that were of age to vote would
come out, we have about 120 and about 40 registered today and a
total of about 60 registered through the school,” he said.
Herrington also mentioned the other half of the eligible seniors
may have registered to vote at DMV or online.
Windsor high school senior Nick Monaco was one of the students
who registered to vote on his own time. He said he registered
online earlier this year at the age of 17 and he thinks it is
important for young people to vote because American politics are in
need of change and it is up to the youngest generation of voters to
make that happen.
“It is just a simple way to affect change and to overturn the
staunchy conservatives in this country,” he said. “Politics as it
stands are just nasty. It is like a dirty, oily soup, conflicting
where it could be something progressive. Things should be running
fluid.”
Despite Monaco’s enthusiasm for bringing a positive change to
politics, he said he has a hard time taking politics seriously.
“I registered as a communist just for the hell of it. I don’t
claim any party, I just did it as a joke,” he said.
He said major political change is coming and he envisions
political parties and candidates that stray from the traditional
norms.
“I want to see a gay, Jewish Black female run (for president),”
he said. “I say kids are sort of fed up with the party system. My
parents and their generation are more party system and our
generation is more issue, we are more open-minded. I think we are
breaking the border of the party system.”
Windsor high school senior Drew Jones said this presidential
race is unique because of the differences in the candidates and he
has been following the race between Democratic candidates Hilary
Clinton and Obama.
“Barack Obama is really a good candidate and it will be
interesting because we have a lady and a black man running this
year,” he said. “I don’t really mind either way, everyone is
equal.”
Kasey Richardson, a senior at Windsor high school, registered to
vote last Friday and like Jones, she said she will follow the
presidential race and will cast her vote based on the candidates’
politics rather than the social issues they represent.
“That worries me, I don’t think people should vote for gender,
religion or race,” she said.
Several of the seniors said they are unhappy with the Bush
administration and the war in Iraq and plan to use their vote to
bring an end to the war.
Windsor high school senior Nate Fortunheo said he thinks the
military minded president will be replaced with a more passive
candidate.
“First off, I’m not sure if people will want another Bush or
will go the other way and go for peace and freedom,” he said. “I
just think in the next few years there will be a lot of changes
going on and I think people will be looking for somebody that is
more peaceful.”
Future Democrat Scott Jaromin of Healdsburg High School said he
is dissatisfied with Bush’s decisions concerning the war but is
unclear about a proper exit strategy.
“The war in Iraq, that’s pretty big. I don’t think we should
have gone there in the first place but I don’t know how we can get
out,” he said.
Jaromin said right now democracy and the two party system are
not sufficiently serving the country and a radical change needs to
happen.
I read this book about a tribe in Africa and how funny they
think democracy is because half the people could be unhappy,” he
said. “They have a system where they keep arguing until they come
to an answer.”