Barry Plunkett

Project Proposal
A little over a year ago, in the 2014 midterm elections, just 36.4 percent of the voting
eligible population cast ballots. These turnout numbers are abysmal compared to turnout rates in
the representative democracies of Latin America and Europe. As appalling as the turnout rate
was, it was anything but surprising. Voter turnout, particularly for midterm elections, has been
falling since World War II, and the numbers arent showing any signs of improvement. While
poor turnout among the general population is undeniably concerning, the youth turnout rate is far
more frightening. Voters under thirty are more apathetic towards government and politics than
any generation in history. In the latest election, only 21.5% of voting eligible youth population
cast ballots. I will attempt to combat pervasive political apathy at Centennial by publishing a
political opinion and networking website known as centennialvotes.com
The website will be composed of a voter registration portal (coded and maintained using
Rock the Vote widget), an issue-based discussion forum, a community calendar, and a political
news publication written by Centennial students. The forum, to be organized by level of
government (federal, state, municipal) and topic, will enable students to have fluid, back-andforth discussions and debates about current events and politics. I will use an ID-plugin and
moderators to ensure it cannot be invaded by bots or abused by trolls. The news publication
will publish articles and op-eds submitted by Centennial students. Robbie Hitt and I will review
and edit submissions before publication for quality control purposes. The community calendar
will be updated regularly with political events which students should be aware of. We will
include events of national significance, such as policy rollouts and presidential debates, as well
as more local events, such speakers and volunteer events sponsored by school and community
political organizations. Hopefully someday, news reporters from the publication side of the
website will attend and cover these events. The website will also feature a voter registration
portal powered by the Rock the Vote app. Voter registration, news publication, and debate forums
will intersect at CentennialVotes.com to create a one-of-a-kind engagement tool.
The week after midterms I will register the website domain and begin coding the
foundation of the website. By the middle of February, I will have the skeleton of the website
completed. Then I will begin to seek out a handful of students to write the first articles and opeds. Meanwhile, I will code the forum and explore security plug-ins to protect it. I hope to have 5
reporters working on news and opinion pieces by the end of February. The voter registration
portal will be constructed in the last two weeks of February. In the first week of March, I will
begin compiling event information and writing code for the community calendar, which will be
completed by the end of the second week of March. Over the next two weeks, I will conduct a
promotional campaign to publicize the websites launch. Flyers will plaster the hallways. A handpainted banner will hang outside the cafeteria. Advertisements will loop on the TV and the
intercom. The website will ultimately launch in the first week of April. At this time, Robbie and I
will set up several laptops outside the cafeteria during lunch shifts to demo the website and
register students to vote. We hope CentennialVotes.com will harmonize with and amplify other
activism efforts at CHS to help combat political apathy in our community.