Adler Garfield said he remembers watching the news after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012. The 19-year-old hoped it would never happen to his community, but it did Feb. 14.
Garfield, who graduated from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2016, still feels the pain of the Parkland community after the school’s mass shooting. He channels his grief into promoting his club, UF Stands with MSD — which aims to promote gun control, school safety and voter registration.
“The only way to make policy change is really through voting and expressing how we want things to be changed,” Garfield said.
In an analysis by Democratic data firm TargetSmart, the amount of 18- to 29-year-old registered voters in Florida increased by close to 8 percent after the Parkland shooting.
But in Alachua County, where about 70,000 residents are either students of UF or Santa Fe College, voter registration among 18- to 25-year-olds is unlike most counties, said T.J. Pyche, director of outreach for the Alachua County Supervisor of Elections.
“We’re in the position where we’re a relatively small county that has this huge turnover of people who are that age,” Pyche said.
It’s natural for Alachua County to see spikes in youth voter registration before general elections, Pyche said. But Alachua County students who registered to vote in presidential elections tend to move away and are no longer registered here.
In October 2016, before the presidential election, 18- to 25-year-olds registered to vote in Alachua County made up 22.5 percent of the total voters. In November 2017, that percentage was 20.9 percent, and as of Tuesday, it was only 19.6 percent.
Malik Pittman, a 21-year-old UF telecommunication student, said his organization tries to get students to register to vote in Alachua County. Those who are not from Gainesville would either have to go home to vote or fill out an absentee ballot, which many people don’t know about.
As president of the Theta Sigma Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Pittman said he believes it is important that people in the community are registered to vote and are educated about local elections.
“It is very important to register in your local town because this is going to affect you primarily,” Pittman said.
Similarly, Garfield’s organization, UF Stands with MSD, is encouraging the younger demographic to register to vote in Alachua County.
During the Gainesville Road to Change event July 26, coordinated by MSD students and alumni, there will be a booth from the Alachua County Supervisor of Elections where people will be able to register to vote or update their voter registration, Garfield said.
The primary election is Aug. 28, and the general election is Nov. 6.
“The only way to make policy change is really through voting and expressing how we want things to be changed,” Garfield said. “As any country develops, the younger people are always the ones making the change in the future.”
