(2 Nov 2018) Student activists from the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School arrived at the University of Central Florida on Wednesday to mobilize young voters to register and vote.
The student activists have set their sights on the 4 million U.S. citizens turning 18 this year.
They're hoping to overturn the voter apathy that's especially prevalent among the youth during midterm elections.
"I'm really excited to be here. It's my first time on campus," said David Hogg, one of the prominent student activists from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
Another student, Sofie Whitney says the goal is "to make sure everyone is voting and everybody is informed."
Bradley Thornton, a Stoneman Douglas graduate and current UCF student escorted fellow students to the campus' early voting site.
Many students said they wouldn't have voted if the Parkland activists hadn't showed up on campus.
Trends in Florida's early voting suggest a surge in young voters.
The 30-and-under crowd is more likely to vote in this year's midterms than in the past.
Forty percent say they'll vote, compared to just 26 percent in 2014, according to a new poll by Institute of Politics at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government.
They're being pushed, in part, by a strong disapproval of President Donald Trump.
The initiative by Stoneman Douglas student activists comes nine months after 17 of their classmates and teachers were gunned down by a shooter on February 14.
They've been mobilizing tens of thousands at anti-gun rallies across the nation.
According to analysis by the University of Florida, of the 124,000 people aged 18 to 29 who had voted in person at early polling stations as of Thursday, nearly a third of them did not vote in the presidential election in 2016.
About half of those new voters were newly registered.
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