By Stacey Dresner

STATEWIDE – Dara Sadinsky recalls accompanying her mother to the polls in West Hartford as a young girl, to observe her voting local and national elections.

Now, although she is not old enough to vote in the Nov. 3 presidential election, the 17-year-old is still participating in the election process. 

Sadinsky, along with her fellow members of the AZA and BBG chapters of BBYO in the Connecticut Valley Region and around the country, is participating in Voice Your Vote, a national non-partisan BBYO initiative aimed at registering young voters to vote and insuring fair access to voting. In addition, BBYO members are also recruiting teen volunteers 16 years of age and older to staff voting polls in place of older volunteers who this year may stay away over concern about Covid-19.

Connecticut is one of 45 states that allow 16-year-olds to serve as poll workers in order “to encourage young citizens to engage in voting, registration and democracy,” as the National Conference of State Legislatures puts it.

“I really wish I could vote. I’ve been politically active for as long as I can remember,” says Sadinsky, who is now a BBYO field organizer for the election. “Having this opportunity to still help with the election is great. I knew from the get-go that I wanted to help in some way and as soon as I saw this opportunity I was excited.

“The majority of our members are younger than 18,” she adds. “So, we want to get everyone who can be registered registered; those of us who can’t vote just want everyone as involved in as possible.” 

Jennifer Kruzansky, regional director of BBYO CVR, says signing up members to staff the voting stations is just as important as registering voters.

“We’re working on having 100 BBYO teens registered to work the polls because we know that poll workers are very hard to come by now with COVID,” Kruzansky explains. “Most of the people who work at the polls are older and could be high risk.”

BBYO has tied Voice Your Vote to its annual regional kick-off plans for the coming year.

“Because of COVID we couldn’t have our usual regional kickoff where we bring 500 teens together in person,” Kruzansky says. “This year we decided if we can’t have everybody together, let’s pivot to a model where we bring the regional kickoff to your community.”

BBYO CVR is now showing up to every chapter’s community with a 20-foot inflatable movie screen for a “drive-in movie” night. And every one of those drive-in movie events will have a Voice your Vote component to it. 

“We want to reach as many teens as possible.[We thought] ’let’s do an event that the teams are going to be drawn into and build upon it so that they have a more rounded experience. It’s fun to go to a drive-in movie with your friends and really learn about Voice Your Vote, rather than just sit at a table and register people to vote. We want to meet teens where they are at,” says Kruzansky. “Every kickoff will have a table with information about registering to vote and to get people registered to work the polls.”

BBYO is thankful to have several partners helping them in their efforts, including 

Connecticut’s Secretary of State Denise Merrill, and State Treasurer Sean Wooden.

“As Connecticut residents, your voices matter in both local and national elections, and trust me, this will be the most important election of your lifetime,” says Wooden in the BBYO video. “So remember to register to vote because we’re counting on you. For nearly a century now, BBYO has been dedicated to improving our communities here in Connecticut, and their work is always defined by passion, creativity, and thoughtfulness, they are on the front lines of youth engagement. And this voter registration drive is yet another example of their leadership.”

According to Voice Your Vote’s website, there are 47 million 18- to 29-year-olds who are eligible to vote in the 2020 election, and 15 million of them have turned 18 since the last presidential election. 

According to Pew Research Center, one in 10 eligible voters are between the ages of 18 and 23 (referred to as Generation Z).

“The primary focus of Voice Your Vote is to teach teens how to be civically engaged from a young age,” explains Ryan Ladd, BBYO’s digital strategy manager. “Our nearly 150 teen field organizers from across the U.S. are working hard to register voters, pledge voters, recruit poll workers, and get people involved in this effort in general. Since August, more than 1,300 members of the BBYO community have taken action in one of our key campaign areas. We’re also proud that we’re quickly climbing to recruiting 300 poll workers.” 

Besides reaching out to BBYO members and alumni, Sadinsky is also encouraging those outside BBYO’s sphere  to get involved – her extended family have all heard her pitch about the importance of voting on Nov. 3.

“I definitely think that this is a very important election. No matter which way it goes. Not just our country but potentially the world could see change,” says Sadinsky. “As a woman, I know that there was a lot that went into me being able to vote. So, I don’t take that for granted. I think it’s really important to emphasize the history of how we got to where we are and why this is a right that we should exercise.”

Main Photo: Doron Lowenberg, a BBYO member from Stamford, mans a Voice Your Vote table at the Stamford JCC.