KELLY MCEVERS, HOST:
Now we're going to hear from voters who have never been able to vote before - 18-year-olds. This morning in Indiana we tagged along with a group of 18-year-old high school students who got to skip class today to do their civic duty.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Pretty nervous about it, but I think I have figured out who it is.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #1: I'm kind of nervous, too 'cause this is my first time doing it and all.
AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:
Chase Swingle is one of the lucky voting-age students at Jefferson High School in Lafayette, Ind. He and the others say they're a bit intimidated by the responsibility of voting.
CHASE SWINGLE: Yeah, I'm nervous, too. I feel like it's the first thing that I will have done that kind of secures my adulthood, so it's nerve-racking.
MCEVERS: This trip to the polls was organized by their government teacher, Grant Fischer. And he says a lot of the time, teenagers are pretty apathetic about politics but not this year.
GRANT FISCHER: I just surveyed the kids who sees themselves as a lifetime voter, and out of over a hundred kids, only six said no. So right there that tells me, you know, these kids are in it.
CORNISH: These new voters don't have very far to go. The high school is right across the street from their voting station at the Tippecanoe County Fairgrounds.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #2: OK.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMEN: Hey.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #2: All right, we'll see you after you vote.
CORNISH: Members from the League of Women Voters cheered them on as they get in line. As they file into the voting booths, poll workers give instructions on how to cast their votes.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #3: If I could get you to sign and tap the accept button.
MCEVERS: And after a few minutes, it's over. Their ballots are cast.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #3: Thank you. Have a great day.
MCEVERS: The students come out one by one. It turns out voting isn't so scary after all. Here's senior Dakota Pickett.
DAKOTA PICKETT: Oh, it was a piece of cake, man. It - I was thinking about it too much, but now that it's over, it's a piece of cake. I would go out and do it every year.
CORNISH: No matter who they voted for, all the students agree that they feel relieved. Cortiz Buckner says he wasn't even planning to vote, but now he's glad he did.
CORTIZ BUCKNER: Yeah, I feel a lot more mature now that I voted. I feel, like, real grown.
BUCKNER: And for Chase Swingle, the nervous senior who said voting would secure his adulthood - now he says a big weight has been lifted off his shoulders.
SWINGLE: Yeah, I feel like I'm more of a participating member of society, and I don't feel as nervous. I feel like I can hold myself a little bit higher knowing that I've cast my ballot.
MCEVERS: Here's hoping the rest of the country feels that way, too. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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