Why don't young people vote?
September 29, 2004
I think this issue needs to be addressed in steps because young people can mean so many things.
1. Young People can refer to the high school students that turn 18 during their senior year and are too involved with pep rallies, homecoming, prom and their high school sweethearts to follow the campaign trail. High school students are not a targeted age bracket in the election because they don't think their vote matters. Many of the students around them are not old enough to vote and have other matters to concern themselves with. In order to get high school students to vote, they would need to feel empowered as a group and have someone show them that what they think matters.
2. Young people can refer to college students - our future leaders. College students are much more in tune with the voting than the other groups listed. They, though not completely, realize their vote matters and have groups to empower their friends to vote. SHU has a Young Republicans group on campus because there are students who think it is important to spread the word. The portion of these students who don't vote, don't because they don't feel that their vote can make a difference and/or that politics doesn't interest them and therefore will not affect their lives. They are wrong. Whether they are interested in politics or not, the decisions of the politicians affect their lives more than they knew. If this was pointed out to them, it may change their views on voting.
3. Young people could refer to people who don't go to college. The under-educated individuals who are actually immersed in the working world may have a better view of the effect of not voting. They are already having to live on their own and make something of themselves.
Regardless of the category of voter, it is important to vote. Register to vote. I, because of my lack of knowledge of the political parties, registered as a non-partisan party. This basically means that I don't affiliate myself with a party, but I also can not vote in the primaries leading up to the presidential election.
Here are a few links that I found about young voters:
SignOnSanDiego.com > News > Politics -- Pop music leads charge in urging youths to vote
Rock the Vote
Hip-Hop Summit Action Network and America Coming Together Launch National Get Out The Vote -GOTV- Tour
Young Voter Apathy
Posted by Brian McCollum at September 29, 2004 10:03 AM
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Comments
You have completly neglected to mention that many possible voters do not go to the polls because: a) they feel pressured into voting for candidates who don't address the issues that affect them b) too uninformed to go out of their way to vote c) most of the possible voters who do not vote would have had to send an absente ballot. You make it sound like the only reason "young" people don't vote is because they are superficial and "are too involved with pep rallies, homecoming, prom and their high school sweet hearts." THAT IS REDICULOUS. Maybe the true problem is that the media is so concerned with making Bush and Kerry into celebrities, and schools are so concerned with teaching kids physics, that no one is interested in helping teens and young adults form political opinions. The politicians don't care because if they young people aren't voting, they aren't important. Why not spend some time posting information about candidates for future voters? Love, Red
Posted by: Redheadedfutant at November 17, 2004 08:26 PM
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