More young voters expected to participate in midterms

ST. JOSEPH COUNTY, Ind. – Hoosiers are hopeful Indiana will see a spike in young voters casting their ballots in November.

Folks on both sides of the aisle believe the waves of social movements that happened over the past few years will curb the usual dip in turnout during midterms.

“Seeing everything that we’ve done, like the walkout, has inspired others to get involved with politics,” said Claire Stowe, a junior at John Adams High School. “And kids that you wouldn’t expect it really, have started to think, ‘wow I should really be involved with this.’ Now more people have started registering.”

More and more young folks are vowing to hit the polls this time around.

And that’s the hope for 16-year-old Claire Stowe.

She and a group of her peers with Students for Action and Social Change rallied in D.C. back in March as part of the national March for Our Lives movement.

She’s now looking to build on that momentum here in South Bend.

“It’s just feels really nice to know that there are people that are 18 and are starting to register to vote,” she said. “And I’ve helped to inspire them.”

Since last school year, a few political resources around town connected with these students to help register their classmates.

“I was just getting them trained on how to actively register voters the correct way and they go out and register on their own,” said Arielle Brandy, Democratic board member at St. Joseph County voter registration.

The kids are taking initiative and both parties in the county say they’re seeing an increase in membership too.

“We have a lot of college kids that have come out to events for us, come out to cook outs, just saying, ‘hi my name is so and so, I’ve done work with x campaign or x party in my hometown and I’m ready to get involved in St. Joe county,’” said Jake Mauch, a St. Joseph County GOP intern.