WATERVILLE — Speakers at the Youth Voting Summit expressed hope on Saturday that young activists can be the ones to help create a less toxic, more civic-minded form of politics, no matter which side of the aisle they fall politically.

Sen. Rick Bennett, R-Oxford, who was first elected to the state Legislature in the 1990s, said the current party-first political environment is toxic, with candidates attacking each other and portraying citizens who don’t agree with their side as somehow morally inferior to them. People are also increasingly surrounding themselves only with others of similar political leanings.

Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, left, chats Saturday with Marlela Mata, election engagement fellow at Kennebec Valley Community College, before the start of the Youth Voting Summit at Colby College’s Diamond Building in Waterville. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

“I see what we’re all seeing these days, this toxic political environment where people are really getting turned off to politics, because it’s highly polarized, everybody is in their silo,” Bennett told a crowd of about 60 high school and college students gathered for the third annual Youth Voting Summit at Colby College.

“We start treating each other, not as people with different points of view. Not as adversaries. But as enemies. Can you imagine that, Americans treating each other as enemies? This is really dangerous ground,” Bennett said, “Those big intractable problems are only going to get solved if we work together, putting party labels aside. You are here because … you know this system, this level of toxicity, has to change, and I suspect you want to be that change. You want to lead that change. You’re coming here to understand how you can best do that. I’m glad you’re here. Because our communities need you. Our nation needs you.”

Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows gives a speech Saturday at the Youth Voting Summit at Colby College’s Diamond Building in Waterville. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

Carmen Lahaye, 17, an intern with the Hancock County Democratic Committee, traveled from Ellsworth to attend the summit.

“I want to learn more about engaging young voters, so this seemed like a cool event where I’ll learn a lot,” Lahaye said. “And I’ll share what I learn.”

While she hopes to use what she learns at the summit in her work for Democrats running for office in Hancock County, she thinks it’s good the summit is nonpartisan, and open to everybody, with a focus on getting people involved in politics regardless of their party preferences.

The event was hosted by Maine Students Vote, a nonpartisan network of students and adults formed in 2018 focused on increasing participation in voting and civic participation by young people on college campuses and high schools in Maine.

Allyson Gardner, director of Maine Students Vote, said goals of the summit include helping young people build civic leadership skills, learn from mentors, learn how to get involved in politics and get their peers to join them. She hopes attendees will leave the summit confident and able to engage other young people in conversations about the importance of voting and other civic involvement.

Secretary of State Shenna Bellows said Maine had the highest level of voter participation in the midterm elections in the nation in 2022. Bellows said she has a bet with the secretary of state in Minnesota, which had the highest level of voter participation in the 2020 elections, over whether Maine or Minnesota will have the best voter turnout in the upcoming 2024 elections.

“I hope each of you will do everything you can in the next 31 days, to educate your peers and encourage them to vote,” Bellows said. She encouraged them to reach out to mentors and said several people helped her get her start in politics. “Go to the polls, get registered, and get voting. Help me win this bet. But more importantly, let’s make Maine proud again in 2024.”

Bellows said for the first time this year, Maine voters can register to vote online, though they must do so by Oct. 15 to allow time for their registration to be processed and make its way to municipal election clerks where they live and register to vote.

She noted Mainers can still register to vote at the polls in person, on Election Day, with a form of identification and proof of residency.

Rep. Mana Abdi, D-Lewiston, who was born in Kenya and immigrated to the United States when she was 11 and moved to Lewiston when she was 13, is serving her first term in the state House of Representatives.

Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows chats Saturday before the start of the Youth Voting Summit at Colby College’s Diamond Building in Waterville. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

Abdi, 28, said she thought she had no place in political office, but decided to run after being encouraged to do so by mentors. She said she “discovered the power of my voice” while studying for her bachelor’s degree at the University of Maine at Farmington in political science and international global studies. Along with getting involved in clubs and other campus activities, Abdi said, she realized if she wanted to see the change she firmly believed in, she couldn’t participate from the sidelines, because that wasn’t enough. She later decided to run for office after being encouraged by others to do so.

“Like many young people, I had absorbed the narrative that there was no space for young people to legislate,” Abdi said. “Additionally, as a visibly Black, hijab-wearing Muslim immigrant, I doubted there was a space for someone like me in the Legislature. Thankfully, my community saw it differently. They believed our government can and should reflect the diversity of this beautiful state.”

Workshops for youths Saturday included: How to get your friends and community to vote; poll working; how to track bills and write testimony; what referendums are; money in politics; should the voting age be lowered; what the Wabanaki Alliance is; and how campaigns run.