Photo courtesy of Kamau Kegler’27
This fall, citizens flocked to polls across the country, casting their votes in key races holding statewide and nationwide implications. For many EA seniors and young adults, this November was their first-ever opportunity to participate in an election, offering a chance to register their thoughts on key issues, including the cost-of-living, immigration, and data centers.
At EA, much of the encouragement to vote came from New Voters, a nonprofit dedicated to running voter registration drives at high schools across the country. They send all the materials required to vote to schools, and circumvent many of the challenges surrounding registering normally. Jiya Naik ’28, one of the two students running EA’s New Voters drive, says, “I think New Voters makes it a very simple process. You just show up with your information, you get on the iPad, you put in your information, and then you get an email later confirming.”
The 2026 midterms specifically were an important referendum on American approval of the Trump administration, and, for EA seniors, it was their first chance to voice their political opinions more tangibly. It is generally agreed upon that the power to vote is an important responsibility that ought to be leveraged appropriately by its beneficiaries. However, there is some disagreement on exactly how best to engage with the system. Upper School history teacher Kris Aldridge says, “It seems to me that all voters should feel a responsibility to participate in our elections and to do so with information and feel invested in our democracy. And to me, your habits start when you’re first given them.” AP United States Government and Politics teacher David Mercante agrees, saying, “I think engagement in the process is the most important thing. And I think for most people, I would encourage you to vote.” However, Mercante also acknowledges that there may exist legitimate reasons for witholding a vote, saying, “There could be a situation where your conscience tells you that the way that you want to engage the political process is by choosing not to vote.”
For many seniors, the prospect of voting, while exciting, is not quite what they thought it would be. Trevor Cantlin ’27 says, “They build it up to be this big thing, and then when it finally comes, it’s just like, ‘Okay, I can vote.’ It’s not as special as some may think.”
Other seniors instead highlight how EA’s curriculum has helped prepare them for voting in the midterms. Ellen Casey ’27 says, “I do feel like my classes at EA… encourage the critical thought and discussion that I think is important to engage in the political process. I feel like there’s a lot of inquiry around why things are the way they are, different sides of an issue, or how things may not be the way you initially thought. I feel like that’s important for political activity.”
Of course, many students inside and outside of the EA community still face important barriers to engaging with the political process. Arjun Kulkarni ’27, Naik’s partner in running EA’s New Voters drive, specifically notes the false perception around the difficulty of registering, saying: “I think people think they need a lot more stuff than they do. When you hear you need to register to vote, you imagine that you might need all these different documents. All you need is your driver’s license, and you need to know your Social Security number.” Perhaps the most important idea to be dispelled is the notion that a singular vote doesn’t matter, as Aldridge says: “I suspect some people feel like their one little voice doesn’t matter, because what is one drop of water in an endless ocean, and I would respond, ‘What is an ocean but a multitude of drops?’ That’s not me. That’s David Mitchell from Cloud Atlas, but I think that’s true, right?” Though new voters throughout EA and the country at large continue to grapple with the challenges inherent to the voting process, their influence on national politics is steadily expanding, and their decisions will carry lasting consequences for generations to come.