Three high schools from around Colorado earned the Secretary of State’s 2021 Eliza Pickrell Routt Award this year for registering students to vote.

The Secretary of State’s Office announced this year’s winners Wednesday as Cloud City High School in Leadville, Crowley County High School in Ordway and Peak to Peak Charter School in Lafayette.

“As the nation’s youngest Secretary of State, I’m continually impressed by the dedication our state’s young people have for our electoral process,” Jena Griswold said in a news release. “Congratulations to the students and teachers for earning the Eliza Pickrell Routt Award and for making sure their voices will be heard in our elections.” 

To receive the annual award, a school must register over 85% of its eligible students to vote. This year, Crowley County High School had the highest registration amount with 100% of eligible students registered.

This is Crowley County High School’s second time winning the award, Cloud City High School’s first time and Peak to Peak Charter School’s fifth time.

The Eliza Pickrell Routt Award was created in 2016 to honor the legacy of Colorado’s original First Lady and the first woman in the state to register to vote after the passage of women’s suffrage in 1893.

Routt was a pioneer in women’s suffrage and, as first lady, she helped Colorado become the second state in the U.S. to recognize women’s suffrage and the first to give women suffrage by popular referendum, according to the release.

Since the award’s inception, it has been awarded 39 times to 26 different schools.

Information on how to get a school involved in the Eliza Pickrell Routt Award is available at sos.state.co.us.