Inside the polling place at Alvin Brooks Center for Faith-Justice at Rockhurst University in Kansas City, Missouri, a diverse group of voters come and go swiftly, a steady stream efficiently casting their ballots. Among them are three young women, all seniors from Paseo High School who are casting their vote for the first time. 18-year-old Aanaree Ramsey is excited.
“I feel great,” said Ramsey, with her cascading red hair under a black hoodie. “I feel like I will make a difference. Each vote, they all add up, even if it's just one vote. That could be that .1% that we need to win.”
Kansas City’s Local Investment Commission, or LINC, is a nonprofit founded in 1992 aimed at strengthening children, families and communities by partnering with school districts, community groups, governments, and local leaders. The organization has long been devoted to making sure people are prepared and have a plan to get to the polls on election day. This year much of their focus is on first timers.
The students researched what would be on their ballot ahead of arriving at the polls, but each appeared to take their time, studying their voting cards carefully.
As a Black woman, Ramsey said she believes she has a duty to engage in the electoral process.
”We are the most minority of all the groups, so I think to speak up for my rights as a person, but also as a woman, is important,” she said, "because if not, they’re just going to keep scooting us back.”
Ramsey’s classmate, Shiko Muturi, is equally pumped to cast her first ballot. As a young woman, she said she’s paying close attention to Amendment 3, a proposed constitutional amendment repealing the state’s 2024 right to reproductive freedoms, banning almost all abortion and prohibiting gender-transition procedures for minors.
“I just feel like that's something I’m very passionate about,” said Muturi. “I feel like that's something that people shouldn’t be able to do, to tell what women should do with their bodies. I feel like banning (abortion) would be very detrimental to women."
LINC site coordinator Eric Clayborne said the organization began helping people vote in 1993.
"A lot of their work before being a before-and-after school program was in the community helping a lot of families, and even students, with navigating their elections," he said. "It is super important that we got back to that this year with all that's going on in the world.”
LINC partnered with a total of nine public schools in Kansas City, Missouri, to make sure the students had adequate transportation to get to the polls on Election Day. Some arrived in school buses; others walked to a variety of polling places around the metro. Clayborne reported they helped over 70 students get to their proper polling place. He said involving young people early is crucial.
“You're going to be in charge of this free world, and it starts right now at 18,” he said. “You're going to have to do your research, you're going to have to do your due diligence to understand who is saying what, who wants to implement things into this country."
The final student to cast her vote at this location was Xar’eya Byers. After her turn in the booth, she proudly displayed her “I voted” sticker and said as a Black woman, casting her first vote was empowering. She also said it gave her a sense of gratitude.
“My ancestors fought for me to vote," she said. "I am Black, and I’m a woman, and I feel (the right to vote) is a big deal.”
Byers said she’ll go back to school and tell younger high school students, who will also be voting soon, that every vote makes a difference.
“Even if it's something little, your vote still matters," she said. "There are people in history that have fought for you to be where you are, so why not exercise your right to vote because it could be taken away.”
