Secretary of State Bob Brown will meet with Havre high school students Friday to ask their advice on how to improve voter turnout among young people. The meeting is part of a statewide "Get Out the Youth Vote" listening tour that Brown launched late last month.
"Fewer than one in five Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 took the trouble to vote in the 1998 election," Brown said. "I want to know why and I want to know how to change it. Who better to tell me than young people themselves?"
Brown will visit with students from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m.
The tour is being organized in conjunction with Superintendent of Public Instruction Linda McCulloch and with Wendy Bay Lewis, founder of The Civic Mind, a Bozeman organization dedicated to helping people become more active in their communities.
Brown said he plans to use what he learns during the listening tour as the foundation for a program to encourage youth voting.
Brown plans to visit about two dozen large and small schools throughout the state. He has already conducted sessions at Helena, Missoula, and Bozeman schools.
