Tech student and Cookeville local Michael Lane is running for Putnam County Trustee in the May primary election. Not being your average candidate for the office at a young age of 21, Michael plans on using his age to his advantage. “With so many young voters in the town, having someone their age in the election will hopefully get their interest up in county elections,” Lane said.
Even if he is unsuccessful in obtaining the office, Lane hopes that in running, he will show the local area that young voters are going out to the polls and making a difference in the local elections.
Lane, born in Cookeville to John and Lynn Lane, and has lived here his entire life and graduated from Cookeville High School in 2007, where he was a leader in sports and his youth group at church. He is a full time student here at Tech and is majoring in Business.
While young political officials don’t seem to be falling from the trees, and local officials are normally thought of as older citizens, there have been cases where the young prevail.
According to the Young Elected Officials network, people between 18 and 35 hold 4.8 percent of all U.S. elected offices.
Jonathan Wallace of Rock Island County Ill was elected to Coe Township Trustee at just 18 years of age. This made him the youngest trustee in that county’s history. Along with other young elected officials, there seems to be a push to get younger voter involved in their county elections.
While running for public office might be a little too much for the average student, Tech has plenty of volunteer programs through the Service Center on campus in need of helping hands. For more information on how to get involved with the Service Center visit http://www.tntech.edu/volunteer.
