During the 2025-2026 school year, voter registration has been encouraged in high schools, colleges and universities by organizations and groups across Iowa. Iowa’s Secretary of State, Paul Pate, spoke at Kennedy High School on Feb, 9, 2026, to advocate and get upperclassmen interested.
“I don’t think it’s fair for them to let people take them for granted,” Pate said. “These young people are today’s leaders.”
Pate is in charge of multiple programs regarding voter registration at the Secretary of State Office. This includes the “Ready, Set, Vote 250! Initiative”, which has a goal of holding 250 or more voter registration drives across the state of Iowa. He also is the head of the Carrie Chapman Catt award which attempts to get high schools all around Iowa to get 90% of their senior class to register to vote.
“The Carrie Chapman Catt Initiative, is designed specifically to encourage a little friendly competition among schools to register their peers,” Pate Said. “But it is a way for us to ensure we’re in front of young people and inviting them to have their voice heard.”
Another program is the Catt Collegiate, which encourages students at colleges and universities to register to vote. Since its launch, 11 Iowa institutions have pledged to participate.
“We’re challenging them to register their student body and to encourage them to get out there and have their voices heard as well,” Pate Said. “So it’s never done, you want to continue to invite people to be a part of the process and you need to remind them why it’s important so we have more consistency in our election turnout.”
Each day Kennedy puts information on the announcements to raise more awareness about registration. During the 2024-2025 school year Kennedy received the “Capitol Award”, a part of the Catt Award, for meeting the requirement of 100 students out of a class of 300 or more.
“Anyone 17 years of age and older can register, so I was asking any juniors or seniors in the hallway,” Student Government teacher at Kennedy, Collin Hollander said. “Getting to 90% is extremely difficult to achieve.”
Getting to 90% would require 369/409 kids in the senior class to register. Currently that number sits around 255 or roughly 60%. Hollander is in charge of encouraging voter registration at Kennedy this school year, and is using his Student Government class to promote registration for those 17 years of age or older. Kennedy will receive the capitol award again this year, and will also receive the certificate award for 50% registered. If the school makes it to 70% by the deadline of Mar. 26, 2026, they can receive the Banner Award.
“I think registering to vote is important because it gets people to use their voice and be civically engaged. So if we advertise it, as student government, it might get people to see it and have it be visible in our school, which means more people might register,” senior Student Government Officer Julia Bruns stated.
Student government members have run through Kennedy, handing out Voter Registration sheets to juniors and seniors. They have also promoted online registration for those who didn’t grab a form.
“This is my second year in Student Government and my first year being involved in planning, but I did get to see them work on it last year,” Bruns said.
High schoolers, who are 18 fifteen days before the election date of Jun. 2, will be able to vote in the 2026 primary elections for state, federal and county offices. And those who turn 18, fifteen days before Nov. 3 will be able to vote in the general elections for those offices.
“Registering to vote does not elect you for jury duty, your driver’s license does,” Hollander Said.
Registering to vote is a choice almost every upperclassman can make, and can influence the political climate of their lives going into the future.
“I feel like there are quite a few people who just don’t know about registering to vote or they just don’t think it’s important because there’s not an election happening right now,” Bruns said, “I also think there are some people who don’t feel compelled to vote because they don’t think their voices will make a difference.”
