Sun rays peek through soft silver clouds as sporadic wind gusts and trails of leaves follow enthused attendees through the National Great Blacks in Wax Museum’s Voices of History Street Fair, a free community event celebrating community arts, culture, and health in Baltimore.
Alongside the sound of local youth performances and the smell of chargrilled meat and steamed vegetables, Baltimore teenagers are talking up the importance of being active participants in local elections to their peers.
The Baltimore Votes’ Student Ambassador Service Learning Program is a collective of high school and college students that offers election resources to other high school students, like helping them preregister if they’re under 18 or find their polling center if they’re of voting age. There is also an Election Judge Program, which trains students to serve as election judges to assist in mitigating the overflow and wait times at in-person voting sites. So far, 13 schools in Baltimore are represented via the Student Ambassador Program.
“Sometimes students may not realize the importance of preregistering to vote or helping out in the election process, and I come across that a lot, especially in my high school,” says Hayat Al-Ali, an ambassador representing Western High School. “So I oftentimes explain to them the true importance of voting and why that should matter to them, and how voting can affect them in the long run.”
“We essentially try to equip people with the resources they need to do their own work in the way that fits their high school best,” says Sarakanti ‘Sara’ Iyer, program coordinator for the Student Ambassador Program.
Preregistered 16- and 17-year-old voters are more likely to participate in voting once they become eligible to vote at 18 years old, according to a September 2024 report published by The Civics Center. In 2010, Maryland was the fifth state to allow young people to preregister to vote, starting at age 16. Maryland’s American Government curriculum includes voter registration as a topic of discussion for high schoolers across the state. Yet, The Civics Center found that having more white voters is strongly correlated with the preregistration rate in Maryland counties. Counties with a median household income of at least $100,000 are also more likely to have young people preregister to vote.
While 63.7% of 18-year-old Marylanders registered to vote between December 2023 and September 2024, only 33% of 16- and 17-year-olds pre-registered, the report found, meaning more than 100,000 eligible 16- and 17-year-old Marylanders were not preregistered.
Baltimore City ranks last out of all the jurisdictions in the state: only an estimated 19.2% of 16- and 17-year-olds are preregistered to vote, according to 2023 Maryland Voter Files. However, as of September, 2026, 43% of 18-year-olds are registered to vote, The Civics Center reports.
The study recommends a “geographically, racially, and socioeconomically equitable approach to welcoming new voters in Maryland providing all with an equal, practical opportunity to participate in the political process” as a remedy.
At the Blacks in Wax Museum community fair, Al-Ali was joined by Student Ambassadors Kayidon Leslie and Teneil Williams, all guided through canvassing efforts by Iyer.
As families entered the fair and visited various booths, the student ambassadors sifted through the crowd to identify eligible youth.
“When we come to events like the one we’re at today, we’re mostly just tabling, encouraging people to register to vote,” said Leslie, an ambassador representing Western High School. “Before we were like ‘registered-to-vote’ heavy, we were really ‘student ambassador’ heavy. We were promoting our Student Ambassador Program to get those service-learning hours, so that’s for people who are 15 and 16.”
Most student ambassadors said the service learning hours and work experience incentives drew them to getting involved with the program.
“I was looking for more leadership opportunities to kind of like bolster college applications and just like my resume in general,” says Williams, who represents Baltimore Polytechnic Institute. “So, it happened first when I saw Poly posting on Instagram about Baltimore Votes, and I decided, why not? Let’s support my community and also [have] fun while I’m at it.”
The city has seen a decrease in election judges in recent years, Iyer said. In 2022, the Baltimore City Board of Elections reported that 1,200 additional election judges were needed to manage polling sites. That same year, the Baltimore Votes Student Election Judge Program was launched to fill the need.
“When you have fewer election judges, you have longer lines. You have lower voter turnout. You have a worse experience at the polls,” Iyer says. “So students have been absolutely instrumental to filling that gap. You can get $300 by serving as one. And that’s money that means a lot for students who have the day off, especially, and can get more involved in their elections that way.”
Service learning hours and election judge money might be incentives, but the ambassadors develop stronger political feelings about civic engagement.
“It makes me feel sad because I think younger people should be involved in politics, especially knowledgeable and know a lot about it since it is going to impact us in the future,” says Leslie. “Young people are the future, so if we don’t know about what’s going on, how will us, in the future, impact the world, if we are so uneducated about stuff like that?”
“Young people are the future, so if we don’t know about what’s going on, how will us, in the future, impact the world, if we are so uneducated about stuff like that?”
The organization also works to dispute the negative association many make between civic engagement and national and international politics.
“I think everything starts at the local level. So some people may think that, oh, like voting is national, like politics, different parties,” Al-Ali says. “But really what it is, is how it’s affecting you, your daily lives, like everything that you encounter every day has to deal with voting and elections. And you should be a part of that impact. And if you want to see change, you should be the change that you want to see, basically.”
“It comes into your life with who’s taking out the trash, with how your roads are, with how your street lighting is, with how safe your community is, with how your water is, your electricity, how your family lives, what kind of housing,” Iyer added.
One of the best ways to communicate this hyperlocal impact of politics to young people is through their peers, student ambassadors have found.
Baltimore Votes currently has student ambassadors at Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, Western High School, City Neighbors Charter School, Gilman School, Park School, among others, and has secured additional ambassador commitments from City College, BRAVE, BSA, and Bryn Mawr.
“It makes me feel like I want to push people in my community, in my school, to be civically involved and be a part of the election process,” Al-Ali said, speaking over the whistling wind at the community day. “I want to be a part of that change and make a lasting impact in tradition and my community.”