By By KEVIN SCOTT CUTLER
Lifestyles & Features Editor
Washington High School seniors Matthew Manning and Nick Coffield are gearing up to vote for the first time in Tuesday’s municipal elections.
The two young men are among the few 18-year-old students at the high school who are registered voters.
“I registered to vote on Aug. 20 when I went to get my license on my birthday,” Manning said.
However, Manning admitted that he didn’t know there is an election looming.
“I hadn’t planned on voting because I didn’t know there was any voting coming up,” he said. “I’ll probably vote now that I know. Mostly, I’ll just vote like my parents do. It’s important because it allows us to have a say in what happens in our society.”
Like Manning, fellow senior Nick Coffield, 18, is a newly registered voter. As a member of the Army National Guard, he felt it is important to make his voice heard. Coffield said he plans to begin active duty with the military full-time after high-school graduation.
“I do plan to vote,” Coffield said. “I need to read up on them (the candidates) to see who stands for what I stand for. Our vote determines how the city will be run.”
Holly Davenport, who won’t turn 18 until January, said she would vote if she were old enough. She became interested in the election process when she ran a successful campaign to be Washington High School’s student-body president earlier this year.
“If you don’t vote, you can’t complain,” Davenport said. “You should definitely vote because having the younger generation vote and come out and speak helps make decisions for our town.”
The number of seniors registered to vote is lower this election year because the school didn’t sponsor a registration drive, according to WHS Principal Russell Holloman.
“We did not have a voter-registration drive this year, but we included the election in our announcements to make sure that our seniors who are 18 would know to register to vote,” Holloman said.
The Student Government Association typically hosts a voter-registration drive during the years of senatorial, gubernatorial and presidential elections, Holloman added.
“We actually do the registration here on campus,” he said. “We want to help the students have a voice in the city, county, state and national elections and have a voice in the decision-making.”