This year, the stakes are too high to sit out on Election Day, especially for young people. If the Republican allies of Donald Trump remain in power, we are the ones who will bear the brunt of their destructive policy agenda, from irreversible damage to the environment to inhumane immigration policies to their attempt to repeal Roe v. Wade. This November, we must take action at the ballot box.

The surge in youth voter registration that we’ve witnessed in the months following the Parkland tragedy is proof that the fastest-growing, most progressive electorate in the country is ready to fight for real political change. On Tuesday, September 25, I am working with NextGen Arizona to continue building this momentum. In celebration of National Voter Registration Day, NextGen Arizona will be on over 20 campuses in cities like Tucson, Yuma and Mesa, engaging, organizing and registering young Arizonans to vote. 

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In close elections, a single vote can be the crucial difference that propels a progressive candidate to victory. The young organizers I work with are enthusiastic about making real sustainable change in the political arena, concerned about the way our society is being shaped, are fed up with the right-leaning politics that are ripping our nation’s fabric to shreds, and they are determined to mobilize their peers to be that difference our state needs. 

On National Voter Registration Day, our goal is to register 500 young people across the state to vote. Our organization has already registered over 16,900 people and we’re going full steam ahead through the midterms. On November 6, young Americans can’t sit home and wait on a blue wave — we have to get out and make it happen. 

Our futures depend on it. 

Symone Gittens is a NextGen Arizona fellow and a student at the University of Arizona