Spotlight on Jaeli Williams: Broadening Youth Voter Participation

"Working with the League of Women Voters Davis Area was a great experience and I will use the skills that I have gained for many years to come.”

My name is Jaeli Williams, and I am a local girl scout in Davis, California. Girl Scouts runs a program that encourages girls to become involved in politics. I was first introduced to the Girl Scouts “Promote the Vote” campaign from my service unit. Lucia Kaiser, a LWVDA member, was looking for a girl scout to help and lead a project that would spread the word about registering & voting. It was a great opportunity for me to earn my gold award as the project lined up with the 2020 presidential election and my civics class. It was a way to experience hands on what I was learning in class.

I soon started working with the Davis Area League to help them create a video that would encourage people to register and vote, particularly the 18-25 year olds. Working directly with the LWVDA Voter Registration Chair, Judy Higgerson, was an amazing experience as we brainstormed and created ideas for the video.

LWV on all levels; local, state and nationally, and the Girl Scouts have a lot in common. Both promote girls, and women, to lead nonpartisan projects. It was very inspiring to see two organizations that encouraged female leadership working together to create an informal video.

After the video was created and posted on social media sites, I started interviewing members of the League to add onto my gold award. I got the chance to interview three women that were active or restarting to become more active once again in LWV Davis Area chapter. It was interesting hearing about their stories about the League, and also about their personal life.