Vermont high school students who will turn 18 by Election Day got their first chance this week to vote for a potential presidential candidate.

Vermont 17-year-olds won the right to vote in primaries in 2010, when 80 percent of state voters agreed to amend the state Constitution.

But not many took advantage of the opportunity, if a sampling of local towns is any indication. In Middlebury, which has about 8,200 people, no 17-year-olds who have birthdays on or before Nov. 6 registered to vote in the March 6 primary; in Cornwall, a town of about 1,160, only one did, according to town officials.

Vermont is now one of fourteen states that allow citizens about to turn 18 to participate in primaries. Four more states -- Kansas, North Dakota, Washington, and Alaska -- allow 17-year-old voters to cast ballots in Democratic Party primaries only, not those of other political parties.

The law here was proposed by three former high school students, Ellie Beckett of Williston, Katie Levasseur of South Burlington, and Courtney Mattison of Rutland, who used to work as interns in the State House in Montpelier.

With the help of State Sen. Jeanette White, a Democrat from Windham County, their proposed amendment was ushered through both houses, during two separately elected legislatures, and then placed on the ballot. For their work, the three students received the Vermont Secretary of State’s Enduring Democracy Award in December, 2010.

Voters in Vermont and 9 other Super Tuesday states chose presidential primary winners March 6.

Vermont’s Republican primary featured four candidates hoping to challenge Democratic President Barack Obama -- Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum and Ron Paul. Romney, the formner governor of neighboring Massachusetts, won Vermont's primary vote.

Allowing 17- year-olds to vote is “one way that states and political parties can respond to and further accommodate the growing desire among young people to be engaged citizens,” says the Progressive States Network, which describes itself as a “non-partisan, non-profit organization dedicated to supporting the work of progressive state legislators around the country.”

Seventeen-year-old-Vermont voters are not administered the state’s Voter’s Oath until they are 18 and they may not participate in other voting on town meeting day. However, their votes in the primary are counted the same as votes cast by citizens over the age of 18.

Four years ago, the absence of an incumbent candidate prompted unusually high voter turnout in the presidential primary, and among young voters participation was especially high -- tripling or even quadrupling over previous totals in some states.
    
Turnout by young people in this year’s presidential primary is unlikely to be as high, because there is an incumbent seeking re-election and the only contested major party nomination is the Republican Party’s.
    
In the 2008 general election, youth voted for Barack Obama over John McCain by a margin on two to one.
    
A recent poll of 800 Vermont residents conducted by the Castleton Polling Institute at Castleton State College showed Romney leading the field in the Vermont Republican Primary. The poll placed him 7 percentage points ahead of Santorum, a former U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania.
    
According to a study by Reuben J. Thomas and Daniel A. McFarland, most people vote in their lifetimes; the real question is how long it takes them to develop the habit. As a result, youth voter turnout is relatively low while participation among the elderly tends to be very high. It takes time for young people to acquire the skills required to register to vote, know where to cast ballots, and become acquainted with politics and the positions of candidates, the study said.
    
Young voters need such skills to “feel they have some handle on the importance of their votes,” the study said. Not having them can cause feelings of insecurity that can keep a young adult from becoming a habitual voter.
    
Studies like this one suggest that even small aids can help get young voters to the polls. In 2008, on average, 59% of young Americans whose home state offered Election Day Registration voted, 9 percentage points higher than those who lived in states without EDR.

The Progressive States Network suggests school-based registration as an effective way to boost youth voting. Louisiana allows voters to register in public high school guidance offices, it said. In California, state lawmakers passed legislation that would have made registering to vote a requirement for high school graduation. The governor vetoed the measure.
    
Social Studies teacher Susan Arenson leads efforts to get young voters involved in elections here at MUHS. During each election cycle she organizes voter registration drives as well as school-wide elections. Participation in school elections follows the general trend of participation in countrywide elections. In 2008 approximately 51 percent of students voted in the mock election. Obama won that election with 70 percent of the vote. In the 2010 midterm election far fewer students participated.
    
Though MUHS does not have a traditional civic education class, classes like World History 3, ISP, Advanced Placement U.S. History, and Political Issues and World Affairs (PIWA) place some emphasis on government education.
    
Secretary of State Jim Condos worked with the Learning Network of Vermont, the state’s school video conferencing network, in January, 2012, to spread awareness among young people of the opportunity that would be open to many high school students. According to a recent poll, many MUHS students were completely unaware that their voting rights had been expanded.