MILWAUKEE— Two students at Alverno College have made it their mission to recruit and educate as many young voters as they can.

“Stressing the importance of getting out here and making your voice heard,” said 31-year-old Lauren Tatum.  “Each vote does matter.”

“We are the leaders of the future,” said 21-year-old Donna Lewis-Taylor.  “Young people are leaders of the future.”

Tatum and Lewis-Taylor have been working to recruit young voters on campus since September.  Friday, Tatum took a group of them to vote early at a polling location near the college.  Some students in the group had never voted before.

“There are so many of us who didn’t vote in the last election and who don’t vote ever, so our big thing was to get out the young vote,” Lauren said.  “That’s what I’ve been doing on campus.”

Lewis-Taylor made and shared a Spotify playlist specifically geared towards the power of making your voice heard in the political process.

“There is political expression that shouldn’t go unnoticed in hip-hop and R&B,” she said.  “I wanted to intertwine my passion for music and my passion to advocate for social justice.”

Lewis-Taylor and Tatum belong to a national group called Power to the Polls.  The initiative aims to fully staff polling locations in all 50 states.

“We were looking specifically for college-aged workers who are in that lower-risk range for getting COVID and serious complications from it to get out and power our polls so everyone has the chance to make their voice heard,” Tatum said.

The two women helped fully staff 173 of Milwaukee’s 180 polling places. They recruited 178 poll workers.

Lauren is also a fellow for Alverno’s Campus Election Engagement Project.  The national initiative aims to recruit young voters.  Especially in key swing states, including Wisconsin.