Phillips Academy seniors are racing to register their classmates to vote, turning dorm rivalries into a voter registration contest ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections.

The Andover Political Union (APU), a student club at the boarding school, launched "First Votes" on Friday, Oct. 2, a campus-wide competition that awards points to residential clusters each time a student registers to vote or signs up for a home-state voter registration email list, The Phillipian first reported. The competition runs through Oct. 26.

APU board member Eloise Malle, a senior who created the initiative and its website at first-votes.org, said her experience during the 2024 presidential election sparked the idea. She discovered her dormmates had not registered despite being eligible.

Malle, who grew up in France, told The Phillipian that when she asked her dormmates if they had registered, "everyone's like, 'Oh, I forgot that I could do that this year.'"

The gap between young and older voters is stark. APU co-president Aaron Bai, also a senior, cited data from The Civics Center showing roughly 40% of Americans ages 18 to 20 are registered to vote, compared with about 80% of those 65 and older.

Phillips Academy enrolled 1,169 students in grades 9 through 12 for the 2025-26 school year, according to the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. Of those, 320 are seniors.

The competition is open to all ages. Students under 18 can earn points for their cluster by pre-registering in states that allow it starting at age 16, or by joining a state email list that sends a registration reminder when they turn 18. Malle said the biggest challenge has been convincing younger students the drive applies to them.

Senior Vivian Plouffe said the cluster format drew her in. She said the competition reminded her how close she and her classmates are to casting real ballots. Georgina Grant, another senior, said the initiative helped cut through the noise of social media and pushed students to research candidates.

The APU has not released totals. The competition wraps up Oct. 26, eight days before the midterm election.