By Vanessa Hu
The Pre-Register to Vote Party, held by the Milpitas Recreation and Community Services, aimed to inspire teenagers in Milpitas to vote, Program Coordinator Anthony Teschera said in a Zoom interview. The event, which occurred on Zoom on October 16, encouraged attendees to spread awareness about the importance of voting and educated teens about how to preregister to vote, Teschera said.
During the event, the organizers used a presentation to teach the audience about various voting facts, Teschera said. After the presentation, participants played Kahoot to test what they learned, Teschera said.
“This event was run by a group of interns . . . and basically what they did was they developed a presentation to go over facts about voting events, voting information, the importance of voting, some statistics in regards to the percentage of those who don’t vote and do vote, and different things like that,” Teschera said. “We had about 16 participants and the Kahoot was very interactive and fun. It was very engaging for the group. Everyone really enjoyed it, and overall, it was a successful event.”
Voting is important because it creates change and allows people to speak out about what’s important to them, Teschera said. Pre-registering to vote helps people learn more about the country while engaging in its politics, he added.
“I think [registering to vote is] important because you have an opportunity to take advantage of something that you’ve earned as a citizen of the country,” Teschera said. “I think the future of our world is in the hands of our youth. It’s really important that they take advantage of that.”
Since the target audience for the Pre-Register to Vote Party was teens, the interns played a large role in the planning process, Teschera said. The interns worked together to plan out the concept of the event, figure out ways to engage the community, and post fliers about the event, he added.
“The hope was that this would be an event that would be run for [a teen] demographic by [a teen] demographic,” Teschera said. “I worked with them through planning their presentation. I gave them advice and guidance on things they should be doing in regards to the preparation for it. Once the event started, I just facilitated it and they did an excellent job at executing it.”
Although there currently aren’t any other voting events, the interns are working on ways to continue to engage with the youth and teens in Milpitas, Teschera said. They plan on hosting another voting event like this in the future, he said.
“I think it’s good to [have these voting events] . . . to allow for people to have an understanding of what’s available to them,” Teschera said. “We actively try to offer [events and workshops] continuously so that the teen demographic has things to learn or things to engage in.”