{"id":314169,"date":"2026-10-25T21:58:25","date_gmt":"2026-10-25T21:58:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/314169\/"},"modified":"2026-10-25T21:58:25","modified_gmt":"2026-10-25T21:58:25","slug":"pa-election-2026-philly-students-march-for-youth-vote-ahead-of-midterms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/314169\/","title":{"rendered":"PA election 2026: Philly students march for youth vote ahead of midterms"},"content":{"rendered":"

The event featured student performances, speeches and voter registration resources, including information about early voting. It comes as young people are expected to play a significant role in the November midterms. According to The Civics Center,<\/a> young Pennsylvanians could have a greater presence at the polls this year. As of September 2026, 27% of the state\u2019s 18-year-olds were registered to vote, up from 21% at the same point in 2022.\n<\/p>\n

Aisha Yansane, a student at Parkway Northwest High School, another school set to close, said it feels \u201cpowerful\u201d to be attending the march and hopes that students can make \u201ca really big change just by being here and showing up\u201d.\n<\/p>\n

For Faustine Gultom, a student at Thomas Jefferson University, the march brought back memories of her own time as a high schooler, when she felt too shy to speak up.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cSeeing them here, feeling empowered and willing to speak up is really empowering,\u201d she said.\n <\/p>\n

As she prepares to cast her ballot, she said she is thinking about young people who are not yet eligible to vote or who feel their opinions do not matter.\n<\/p>\n

Gultom said the march inspires young people to vote because \u201cthey know that they have the strength and their opinion matters. They can step into [those] polls and vote.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Shaquita Smith, a social studies curriculum specialist with the school district, hopes that voting can become a \u201cjoyful habit\u201d for young people. For her, the event is representative of how peer to peer encouragement can incentivize young people to take action.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is what democracy is about and they are really putting that in play,\u201d she said.\n<\/p>\n

Faridah Ismaila, a PA Youth Vote ambassador, said the march gives students an opportunity to make their voices heard and support the issues that matter most to them. For her, having a variety of schools and students is a valuable part of that experience.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody has the same belief that teenagers should voice their opinions, but there\u2019s a sense of individuality where everybody can represent an [issue] that matters to them most,\u201d she said.\n<\/p>\n

For Maya Izzard, a senior at the Philadelphia High School for the Creative and Performing Arts, the march was an opportunity to emphasize what young people want to protect and what they believe their country can still become. Speaking to the crowd at City Hall, Izzard said she has \u201cfound her reason to care\u201d about America.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI see youth who do care, youth who will fight for the America that fulfills its promises. I care about honesty, I care about our rights, I care about our voices, I care about our teachers,\u201d she said. \u201cI care about America because I believe it can be better.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Voters can find their polling place for the Nov. 3 election using the state\u2019s official lookup tool<\/a>. Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Election Day.\n<\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s Note: This story is part of a series on Youth Civic Engagement funded by the William Penn Foundation. WHYY News produces independent, fact-based news content for audiences in Greater Philadelphia, Delaware and South Jersey.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The event featured student performances, speeches and voter registration resources, including information about early voting. It comes as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":314170,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[25694,69,71,70,61434],"class_list":["post-314169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-elections-2026","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-youth-voting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=314169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314169\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/314170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}