The Marin County Department of Elections unveiled their Student Election Ambassador Program, a coalition of student volunteers serving as election ambassadors to pre-register and register young voters within their eligible high school demographic. 

The department collaborated with the Marin League of Women Voters (LWV) and the Marin County Office of Education (MCOE) in the creation of the program, which aims to annually recruit students passionate about the electoral process, voter registration, and engaging in their civic duties. 

“Voting is such a fundamental part of our democracy and a lot of students at Tam talk about wanting to make change and one of those key ways is by voting,” Tam senior and Student Election Ambassador Ella Clark said when discussing the value of theStudentelection program. 

Civic-minded students like Clark must either live in Marin County, attend a Marin County school or be a recent graduate (aged 25 or younger) who consider the county to be their home or community to qualify for the program. These students were required to apply through the student ambassadors application accessible through the Marin County website by Oct. 10 and complete a training session following their acceptance into the program so that they could begin registering their peers. 

Applicants who wish to participate in the program during following years will be able to access the application in early 2023, according to the Marin County Department of Elections.

 As for the program’s impact within classrooms, “I love it,” Tam social studies teacher Jennifer Dolan said. “I love watching the students who are running the [in-class election registration] are so enthusiastic and that is totally contagious and I think the fact that it happens during class, that we are stopping class to do this, adds another element of this is really important and I think students like being able to register to vote, it makes them feel important and that their voice is going to be heard.”