Central High School is among the three latest winners of an award recognizing efforts to register students to vote.

The school received the 2023 Eliza Pickrell Routt Award for registering
85 percent or more of eligible students to vote. Denver East High School and KIPP Northeast Denver Leadership Academy also won the award.

“It is fantastic to see Colorado’s next generation of voters taking steps to engage in our electoral process,” said Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold. “Congratulations to the students and teachers earning the Eliza Pickrell Routt Award. I commend them for their leadership in ensuring our youngest voters can make their voices heard.”

Central High School registered nearly 92 percent of eligible seniors to vote, KIPP Northeast Denver Leadership Academy registered 87 percent of seniors, and Denver East High School registered 85 percent of eligible seniors.

Created in 2016, the award honors the legacy of Eliza Pickrell Routt, former first lady and the first woman registered to vote in the state after Colorado passed women’s suffrage in 1893.

Routt dedicated herself to equal rights for women and for a woman’s right to vote. She helped Colorado become the second state in the country to recognize women’s suffrage and the first to give women suffrage by popular referendum.

Since its inception, the award has been bestowed 44 times.