Nashville high school voter-registration drive eyes record

Acquire DigitalNews

Allison Halbrook has set the path for what Nashville officeholders hope will be a historic year in getting high school students registered to vote.

As Hume-Fogg High School’s Advanced Placement U.S. government teacher, Halbrook has the unique position of having all seniors as students. So this week, she made sure that each and every voter-eligible senior registered.

Her next goal: get them to vote in this year’s three elections in Nashville.

“You need to go exercise your right to vote,” a fired up Halbrook told Hume-Fogg seniors gathered for a special meeting Friday afternoon. “The Millennial generation — you’re almost as large as the Baby Boomer generation. Your vote can counteract the Baby Boomer generation.”

The assembly marked the kickoff a nonpartisan citywide voter registration campaign over the next month organized by the Davidson County Election Commission and the offices of Nashville U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper, a Democrat, and District 20 state Sen. Steve Dickerson, a Republican. The goal is to set a new record for number of new registered 17- and 18-year-old voters in Nashville by surpassing last year’s record of 1,551.

Read more here.