NASHUA, N.H. (AP) – Three Nashua teens not only will be voting in their first general election next month – they’ll be on the ballot.
The three college students are Democratic candidates for the Legislature.
“We’re going to have to live with effects of policy that’s being made,” said Alexander Gallichon, 18. “Why not have as much input as we can into that process now?”
Gallichon is running in District 26. He would have graduated from Nashua High School South in May, but left early to begin his studies at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., majoring in government.
Andrew Edwards and Jeffrey Fontas, both 19, also are running – Edwards in District 26 and Fontas in District 24.
On a recent Saturday, while most college students might have been lounging around a dorm, they schmoozed with Democrats at a house party for former presidential candidate Wesley Clark.
In 2004, Edwards just missed the cutoff for voting in the presidential election. Instead of staying at home, he found a gig calling in results to The Associated Press on election night.
The Worcester Polytechnic Institute student recalls the anticipation on the faces of candidates as they learned their fates. He’s looking forward to being in that situation on the evening of Nov. 7.
“I got to see firsthand how their campaigns paid off,” Edwards said. “Hopefully, Ill be in that same situation.”
They have been using a mix of door-to-door campaigning and the Internet to line up support.
Fontas, who goes to Northeastern University in Boston, said he contacted all his friends on his online Facebook profile.
“When it comes to organizing people online, that’s one thing we can do pretty effectively,” Edwards said.
They all campaign Web sites, campaign blogs and links for donations.
Fontas wants to get young people more involved in politics and see more people their age represented in elected offices.
“I’m hoping that we can turn some young people on to the political process, or at least get people more interested in voting,” Fontas said.
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