By Kiara Doyal, The Seattle Medium
The League of Women Voters of Washington (LWVWA), a statewide nonpartisan political organization with local leagues in Seattle and King County, announced the winner of its 2024 LWVWA Student Video Contest, Inglemoor High School senior Ava Espiritu.
Launched in 2022, the video contest aims to engage young people in the democratic process by inviting high school students to create short videos that highlight the importance of election credibility.
“Our mission is to empower voters and defend democracy,” says Mary Coltrane, President of the League of Women Voters of Washington. “We are hard at work doing that and really have geared up and are trying our best to reach young voters.”
“We have a special emphasis on young voters and underserved communities that we want to reach out to in terms of providing the information that they need so they can cast an informed ballot,” she continued.
The video contest was launched as part of LWVWA’s efforts to connect with younger voters. Joanne Lisosky, League of Women Voters member of the Election Credibility Committee, noted that the first year was a learning experience, where they made adjustments to make it easier for students to participate and understand the importance of their involvement in elections.
“Myself and a couple of women in the league decided that this video contest was a good way to initiate contact and engage young people because we know that they are paying attention to media,” says Lisosky. “So, why not encourage the younger generations to use the media to persuade people to vote?”
Espiritu feels that it is important to spread awareness and encourage young people to vote and participate in elections because many young people, including herself, lacked the knowledge to do so. When beginning the process of creating her video, Espiritu chose the Washington Future Voter Program, an initiative aimed at preparing high school students to become informed and engaged voters, to form her video around, because it is a new policy that many teens are unaware of.
The program allows 16- and 17-year-olds to sign up as “Future Voters” and automatically registers them to vote when they become eligible.
“It is not that young people don’t want to vote; I think most of them are just lacking information on how to,” says Espiritu. “Bringing voting information to young people is critical to help them just be more engaged and active in the community and knowing the abilities that they have, especially even as 17- and 16-year-olds, because you can register to vote.”
Espiritu’s winning video conveys voting as a form of empowerment that inspires viewers to rise above the noise and shape the future. Many contest judges found her video compelling, highlighting its use of images and self-composed music, smooth transitions, and a seamless flow throughout the video.
“We are very proud of Ava, and the fact that this contest is what was the impetus that got her to do this video,” says Lisosky. “We have been getting a lot of outside attention from her video, and I even got a request from a Pierce County Auditor that would like to play her video on their website.”
Engaging young people in voting is vital because it offers fresh perspectives and drives future-oriented change. Lisosky feels that their participation can ensure the strengthening of the election process and is grateful to introduce younger generations to such a credible election.
According to Lisosky, engaging young people in the voting process is vital as it brings fresh perspectives and drives positive change. She also believes that the involvement of young people can help strengthen the election process and ensure a credible electoral system in Washington state.
“We are really trying to engage students to think about how wonderful it is to live in a state that has a credible election we can trust, and here is why we can trust it,” says Lisosky. “So, the young people get to look through our website and at our programs, and create their video around that argument, so their persuasion is really helpful to the league and to elections in general in Washington state.”