It is not much of a secret that
young people have low voter turnout rates.
Having been eligible to vote in two presidential elections, I myself
have not voted and am contributing to the problem. Voter turnout for 18-29 year olds was
recorded at 45% for the 2012 election, down from 51% in 2008. Voter turnout as a whole was down in 2012,
with only 57.2% of eligible voters casting a vote. There is no simple answer to explain why
young adults turn out in lower numbers to vote.
I believe the single biggest factor happens to be that campaigning
politicians spend little time trying to address issues that are relevant to the
young voter.
Considering there are 52.8
million 18-29 year olds, or 16.8% of the population, our age segment deserves
to have our needs and desires recognized.
The most obvious issue that would come to mind is tuition costs for
universities. College tuitions have more than doubled since the 80’s, even when
factoring in inflation. This is an
unsustainable model if the country hopes to retain a high level of college
graduates who aren't completely inundated in debt. While this issue does receive some mention,
it is not nearly enough for something that could have dramatic long term
results.
In addition to education, the
lackluster job market for those who do graduate is quite disenfranchising. From personal experience and the words of
others, many young people view finding a good job as a major challenge. While politicians talk on and on about
improving the economy and creating jobs, it has only slowly materialized. Young people are being forced to live at home
with their parents after college due to their inability to afford rent or a
mortgage because they are unemployed or underemployed. While fixing the economy
and creating jobs is no easy task, whoever can do so will likely earn the votes
of young people, even those who haven’t voted before. A solid economy would undoubtedly change the
outlook of many pessimistic young people.
Young adults have not viewed many
presidential candidates positively until Barack Obama’s campaign. With so many lesser of two evil type choices,
it is difficult to become inspired to vote when neither choice seems like a
good option. Barack Obama was able to
win over young voters with his speeches, clever campaign posters, and promises
of change, but it seems that for many young adults, his failure to bring about
the level of change he promised has hurt the faith he had garnered. For me personally, I had high hopes for
Obama, but have been disappointed with many of his shortcomings, and the way he
has allowed the status quo to remain intact. It is hard to transition from
having high hopes to having little hope out all. At this point, it would seem that I am
looking forward to the end of his term but the likelihood of a good candidate
replacing him is low.
Politicians will have to make major
changes if they hope to win over young voters en masse. Our age group has been largely ignored for
some time while our issues remain very real. Young voters could have a huge
impact on an election if we were to vote in large numbers but with such low
levels of turnout, we will continue to take a backseat.
No comments:
Post a Comment