Mia Payne, a 16-year-old Bronx student from Talent Unlimited HS, became interested in criminal justice after watching the Ava DuVernay’s documentary “13th,” which outlines the history of the carceral system in the United States, and its correlation with slavery. Being a young Black woman, criminal and racial justice launched her interest in social justice issues, which is how she ended up joining a six-week criminal justice course at YVote. “It was really just crazy to me how you’re being affected, and you don’t even really know,” Payne said.

 

Founded in 2017, YVote is a NY-based, non-profit organization that aims to increase youth voter participation, specifically in local elections. The organization educates over 120 New York high schoolers on policy, candidate positions, and issues like climate change and criminal justice.

 

YVote makes voting accessible to teens by empowering young voters to make informed decisions about who they want as their representatives and what changes they want to make beyond voting.  A weekly YVote meeting is called, “Pizza and Politics,” where the group orders pizza, snacks, and soda and talk politics.

 

Payne’s involvement with the criminal justice action group at YVote enhanced her learning about political candidate positions on a national and local level. She explained that, as an example, at one stage the group acted as though they were prospective voters for Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney and her challenger, Suraj Patel.

 

She and the other YVoters looked at which politician correlated more with their views, and which would be more beneficial to their community. “How they treated the school-to-prison pipeline, how they treated funding private prisons,” Payne said.

 

While Payne began her involvement with YVote remotely, the pandemic hasn’t changed the impact it has had on her. Going remote has allowed YVote to work on their website and social media outreach. Yesenia Burgos, the social media director and facilitator at YVote, even began doing weekly Instagram lives.

 

Through organizations like YVote, Payne said people are able to get the crucial information they need about voting. “You have the information that you really can’t get from scrolling through ten different tabs on Google,” Payne said.

 

After the past six months of ongoing protests across the country that were sparked by the murders of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, among others, 17-year-old Karla Sterrett said that racial justice is where her head is at right now. During the protests, the long-time YVoter fundraised over $4,000 to create care packages of masks, gloves, snacks, and water for protesters.

 

Sterrett said that the upcoming presidential election is more than just Trump and Biden. “Yes, you are voting for the next United States President, but also on that ballot are your assemblymen, are your public advocates,” Sterett said. For YVote, it starts at the community level.

 

Payne agreed with this sentiment and added that the local issues that affect people aren’t necessarily addressed by the federal government. “Trump and Biden might not know every issue in every city, but your local officials do,” she said.

 

In May, Sterett, Burgos, and other YVoters were able to discuss democracy and voting with New York representatives over a Zoom call during a “Take Back the Vote” event. They spoke to New York City Public Advocate, Jumaane Williams, and different state senators about voting inaccessibility during the COVID-19 outbreak. One way this became apparent was with the set-up of online voter registration, which some people found confusing. “It was very misleading to a lot of people that did want to register to vote,” Sterrett said. “It was a bit of voter suppression.”

 

We asked Payne what she would say to young progressive voters who may not vote because, in their view, the policies of former vice president and current Democratic presidential nominee, Joe Biden, are not progressive enough. Payne said, “If you say you don’t want to vote, how do you expect to see your goals turn into action?” She added that if such people know how their community needs change, they could, perhaps, run for office, or hold their representatives accountable.

 

Sterrett agreed with Payne, though she also recognized that Biden has had some issues appealing to a younger demographic. She then weighed that against comments made during a recent presidential debate between Biden and President Donald Trump, where the president said, “‘Stand back and stand by,” allegedly to the alt-right group, the Proud Boys.  Sterrett said, “Like, come on? Seriously, it’s scary!”

 

Both Sterett and Payne continue to reference and contextualize what they’ve learned through YVote in school and in their community. Payne noted that YVote has been amazing for her growth and has helped her understand the importance of civic duty. “I take the ideas outside of school and into my community with anyone that I speak with,” she said.