Former YCV volunteer and member of our NC Civic Fellows program Elizabeth MacDonald sat down for an interview with Civic Fellow Anna Bloch to talk about her experiences. Elizabeth first got involved in YCV when she was in high school in Wilmington, through a friend who was one of our early volunteers in Eastern NC. She then went on to Wake Forest University and became a part of our Civic Fellows program, helping educate, register, and empower voters on campus and in the community.

As a Civic Fellow, Elizabeth appreciated the professional development and mentoring opportunities, as well as the chance to get involved with the Winston Salem community.

“I’ve been really passionate about helping people advocate for themselves throughout my high school and college years, and engaging with You Can Vote’s mission of nonpartisan, non-profit voter registration really checked all of those boxes for me - helping people get politically involved regardless of what party they’re in or what issues they’re interested in was really meaningful to me,” Elizabeth said.

Those who’ve worked closely with her said they’ve learned a lot from her work ethic too. Jake Gellar-Goad is a Campus Organizing Director who worked with Elizabeth during her fellowship at YCV. He said she had one of the highest phone-banking rates during that time.

“You Can Vote worked with over 100 Civic Fellows in North Carolina in 2020. Elizabeth stood out because she took on greater responsibility as a Lead Fellow, which meant having a hand in program design, implementation, and mentorship of new Civic Fellows,” Jake said.

YCV’s message that young people who vote in multiple elections become lifelong voters has stuck with Elizabeth.

“My first election was the 2018 primary elections, I was 17 when I voted and used North Carolina’s law that you can vote in a primary election if you will be 18 by the general election date. So I went to my local public library that I had been visiting since I was 5 years old, and cast my ballot. The poll workers were all really excited to see a young person voting. I voted early, so the lines were really short as You Can Vote always reminds everybody.”

2022 marked her second midterm election which she said she had to plan ahead for by getting an absentee ballot.

Now that she’s received training from You Can Vote, Elizabeth’s friends and family come to her for information about voting.

“Encouraging my friends and family to vote is certainly important to me, and I often refer my loved ones to You Can Vote resources since I trust them and they know the right answers to questions,” Elizabeth said. “I have also established myself as someone who really enjoys the bureaucratic boring aspects of voting so those details, people know they can come to me for assistance with and I’ll be glad to help out.”

Elizabeth encourages others to get involved as YCV volunteers too.

“The training that You Can Vote provides volunteers who are helping others learn about the ballot, about the voting process, and the voter registration process is really comprehensive and the support network that is available to you when you’re out in the field for the first time and beyond is very strong. You won’t ever be caught in a situation without support having a challenging conversation and I found the training to be really valuable and educational to myself as well, and You Can Vote has done a lot of hard work to make the information really digestible to all members of the North Carolina community,” she said. “I think it’s a great way to get more engaged with how the North Carolina government works while also sharing that knowledge with others.”

Watch the full interview below!

Volunteer Feature: Elizabeth MacDonald