Allen County-Scottsville High
School junior Ella Burch was among four winners in the 30th annual Kentucky Secretary of
State's Civic Essay Contest. Burch received a $1,000 cash scholarship from the
office of Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes as the junior class winner
in the annual contest.
Burch’s essay was her thoughts based on this
year’s prompt.
“When an American citizen turns 18, he or she has the
right to vote. Yet in recent years, America’s youngest voters are also
America’s least frequent voters. Turnout among young voters has been
consistently and significantly lower than for any other age group. Youth
turnout (ages 18 to 30) was 28 percentage points lower than persons age 60 and
older in 2016 and nearly 39 points lower in 2014. Is the current climate of
divisive discourse part of the explanation for young voters’ disinterest?
Or does the explanation lie elsewhere since vibrant and even contentious public
discourse is expected in America given the First Amendment’s protection of free
speech?
“The First Amendment is arguably the most
important of all of our amendments to the US constitution,” Burch wrote. “It is
there to safeguard Americans from their federal government. You ask the
question regarding the disinterest of young voters in reference to the
protections provided by the First Amendment. To a young person such as myself,
there is not a sense of any threat to free speech, or freedom of assembly, or
freedom of religious practice. On the contrary, there is a sense of drowning in
free speech. The issue is that young people believe that most of that speech is
disingenuous distortion and/or outright lies.”
Burch proceeds to give three reasons why
young voters are disinterested.
“The system is perceived as corrupt, there
is no coherent and compelling message drawing us into the fray, and there is a
degree of despair that anything can really change,” Burch wrote before
launching into her arguments supporting her views.
Burch began work on the five-paragraph essay
last fall to submit by the December 21 deadline. Her entry along with entries
from students across the Commonwealth was evaluated based on a rubric
encompassing several factors. One-third of the judging criteria was based on
the student’s research and understanding of the First Amendment. A second third
was based on idea development and support. In addition, the remaining 33.3
percent of the essay was analyzed for organization, sentence structure, and grammar/correctness.
The essay had to be 600-words or less and submitted in a typed and
double-spaced format.
The monetary awards were made possible by
contributions from KEA and KEA Retired, the Scripps Howard Center for Civic
Engagement at Northern Kentucky University, the University of Kentucky Scripps
Howard First Amendment Center, the Kentucky Department of Education, Kids
Voting Kentucky, and Harp Enterprises. The Scripps Howard Center for Civic
Engagement at Northern Kentucky University and Kids Voting Kentucky judged the
essay portion of the contest.
Burch, the
daughter of David and Kelly Burch, received the scholarship and recognition on
Thursday during a special presentation at the Whitaker Bank/Kentucky High
School Athletic Association Boys State Basketball Tournament in Lexington.