Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett made a visit to DeKalb County High School last week to present the Anne Dallas Dudley Gold Level Award. The award is presented each year to schools that register 100 percent of its eligible students to vote.

Students recognized during the visit were Westin Wright and Dayanna Martinez who helped students with the registration process. Government Teacher Ms. Debi Loring DePriest was also recognized for her efforts in the process.

Secretary of State Hargett’s office created the Anne Dallas Dudley Award program to promote voter registration among Tennessee high school students. High schools that registered 100 percent of eligible students earned the Anne Dallas Dudley Gold Level Award, while High schools that registered at least 85 percent of eligible students earned the Anne Dallas Dudley Silver Level Award.

The award is named in honor of renowned Tennessee suffragist Anne Dallas Dudley, who helped lead the successful effort to ratify the 19th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. On Aug. 18, 1920, Tennessee became the 36th and final state needed to give women the right to vote.

“We created this award trying to recognize schools in taking the necessary steps to get their students registered to vote,” said Hargett. “This is one of 33 schools in the entire state that got 100 percent of its eligible students registered to vote. For all of us as Tennesseans and Americans it’s important to make our voices heard, and the most fundamental way we do that in our form of society and our form of government is to get registered and go vote.”

State Representative Michael Hale, DeKalb County Administrator of Elections Dustin Estes, and Election Commission member Kim Luton were also present at the ceremony.

“I am thankful to the Secretary of State and his office and the work they do, first of all for secured elections and doing this recognition for our high schools to encourage students to take part in the election process,” said Representative Hale.

Election Administrator Estes also praised Ms. DePriest for her long-time efforts registering student. “I really appreciate Debi DePriest. She was one of my high school teachers. I registered to vote in her class and I appreciate everything she does for the students and for my office. It’s a tremendous help and I really appreciate her.”

“I am a firm believer in voting,” said DePriest. “We have always had great success as far as getting students to register. It doesn’t matter who they are we want them to register and they tend to do that in class under my supervision and we turn it into the election commission. We have had that going on for probably 25 years or more now.”

All Tennessee public, charter/private school, and home school associations can participate in the Anne Dallas Dudley Award program. The Anne Dallas Dudley Award is part of the Secretary of State’s civics engagement initiative to increase voter registration in Tennessee and prepare students to be actively engaged citizens. For more information about the Anne Dallas Dudley Award and other Tennessee Department of State civic engagement efforts, visit sos.tn.gov/civics.