Why don't young people vote?

[kwyjibo]

Politics are boring?

Nobody has tried to encourage them?

Voting is for dorks?

Candidates don't speak about issues that concern them?


I'm working on a poster encouraging 18-24 year olds to vote. Anyone willing to help me brainstorm to get to the root of the problem? I'll share my final piece when I'm done and make it available to print and post.

[rockymountaindem]

1. Who want's to bet on how long it'll be before the first reference to one of the following?

1) Drugs
2) Video game consoles
3) iPods

[MedleyMisty]

5. $500 for in the first five posts after this string

Walkmans were the height of morality, but iPods are the devil's tools.

[rockymountaindem]

20. Well, I guess we were both wrong

Responses have been surprisingly well-adjusted and - adult...

[water]

2. "Whether I vote or not, the outcome won't change"

[OhioChick]

3. Bingo. n/t

[Yavin4]

4. I Don't Think That's True. Young People Do Vote

I don't have the numbers in front of me, but young people did come out in the 2004 election.

[kwyjibo]

12. In 2004, 47% of 18-24 year old citizens voted, 66% of citizens 25 and older voted.

according to http://www.civicyouth.org/quick/youth_voting.htm


I wasn't trying to imply that none of them vote, just wanting to consider the reasons that some of them don't. I do hope that young voter turnout increases even more this year.

[I work for workers]

24. As far as percentages go, there was no 2004 increase in youth voting.

[Breeze54]

30. Youth voting surged by 11 percentage points in 2004!!

http://www.civicyouth.org/quick/youth_voting.htm

Youth Voting Trends: Presidential Elections (Age 18-24- tabulations for age 18-29 available upon request)

Youth voting surged by 11 percentage points in 2004. In presidential election years between 1972 and 2000, the turnout rate had declined by 16 percentage points among young citizens before rebounding by 11 percentage points in the 2004 election. It remains to be seen if the increase in youth turnout in 2004 is part of a new trend or is instead a spike in youth electoral participation like the 1992 election.

In 2004, 47% of 18-24 year old citizens voted, 66% of citizens 25 and older voted.

Single young people, particularly women, are more likely to vote than married young people. The turnout among single women age 18-24 led the way and increased by 12 percentage points, or about one third, since 2000.

Source: The Youth Vote 2004

In 2004 youth voter turnout was highest in Minnesota (69%), Wisconsin (63%), Iowa (62%), Maine (59%), and New Hampshire (58%).

Source: Youth Voter Turnout in the States and Youth Voter State Map

Young women voted at higher rates than young men in the 2004 election.

50 percent of 18-24 year old women and 44 percent of young men voted in 2004.

[I work for workers]

32. I could swear that youth voting stayed the same

as a percentage of the population in 2004. The numbers went up, but only corresponded to a like increase in the overall population. I could be wrong though, and that was from info learned shortly after the election. The knowledge may be greater in hindsight.

[EFerrari]

35. One of the myths floated to account for Junior's re-election

was that youth didn't turn out for Kerry. It turned out not to be true, as was that W. got more of the Latino vote and then there's the "values voters" no one has ever been able to locate.

[RedCappedBandit]

6. A lot of us do..

I don't really know a lot of kids who admit to not voting, honestly, but if I had to guess.. i'd say they either don't trust politicians, and think the frontrunners are all pretty much the same, or they just think their vote won't matter.
Can't really blame 'em.

[Gman]

7. It's not important to them

for whatever reason. Find a way to make it important to them and you will be the highest paid consultant in the country. All the reasons are there for why things are important to youth. But it's not something that affects them right now and directly.

I think it may have something to do with the maturity of the brain and an inability to think beyond what affects them here and now. They're told many things affect them but's that's also asking them to take it on blind faith which youth are seldom willing to do and take seriously.

[pstans]

8. Young people came out in record numbers in the Iowa caucuses

[Gman]

15. Still, the vast majority did not come out.

[pstans]

31. The vast majority of every age group didn't come out

http://www.blog.rockthevote.com/2008/01/young-voters-turn-out-huge-to-iowa.html

Total turnout of 17-29 year olds was triple the age group's turnout in 2004, according to the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE), surpassing 65,000 young participants in the caucuses.

According to CNN’s entrance poll, 17-29 year olds made up 22% of Democratic caucus-goers, an increase of five percentage points over 2004 and more than this age group’s share of the population (21%). Among Republicans, 11% of caucus-goers were 17-29 years old (there was no Republican caucus in 2004 for comparison).

[juajen]

38. Why didn't someone ask them why they came out?

I haven't heard any articles on who voted and why. I would be very interested in the person that inspired them? I'm betting the majority came out for Obama. I believe he has a cult-like influence, and to be honest, I do not know if this is a bad or a good thing. Some of his supporters here are so fanatical, you'd think he was Jim Jones.

[pstans]

39. 57% for Obama

Fifty-seven percent of 17-29 year old Democrats caucused for Barack Obama, 14% for John Edwards, 11% for Hillary Clinton, and 10% for Bill Richardson. Among 17-29 year old Republicans, 40% caucused for Mike Huckabee, 22% for Mitt Romney, and 21% for Ron Paul. (CNN entrance poll)

http://www.blog.rockthevote.com/2008/01/young-voters-turn-out-huge-to-iowa.html

[Hosnon]

9. Perhaps young people tend not to vote because they don't have enough

invested in society. Every additional day that we are alive we have more invested in the world around us.

In a sense, the perceived benefits are not worth the perceived costs (which, if true, says a lot about the lack of benefits from voting at that age if casting a vote is too much).

[angrycarpenter]

10. civics class is the most boring thing in school

Is there a way to teach kids about politics that does not put them to sleep? Solve that one and kids will vote.

[HockeyMom]

19. Participation in Government

is a required course for graduation in NYS. No, it's not just a civics course in a classroom. They actually have to go out and participate: attend a school board meeting, volunteer to register voters, go to court and attend a trial, etc. Whatever they can think of doing, with teacher approval.

It helps. I really does.

[bluestateguy]

11. 2004 produced the highest turnout for these folks in over 40 years

But the reasons are many. For one thing, you have college kids who often have to jump through a lot of hoops to get an absentee ballot. Other young people don't feel rooted in their communities the way older people do: owning a home, having kids in public schools, etc. They may feel less like they have a stake in their community because they don't see themselves as permanent residents yet. Young people move around a lot, which also means that they often forget or neglect to change their registration every time they vote. To say that it's just alienation and apathy is too simplistic and trite.

[RedCappedBandit]

17. Good points . nt

[VP505]

13. I don't understand it either.

Around here we have a Mayor that has done plenty of things that directly affect younger people in negative ways. They complain but for some reason they don't seem to understand that if they would get out and vote they have the numbers to get and hold the attention of the elected to force change.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

14. I Think It's Because Politics Is Generally An 'Adult' Topic That's Only Ever Presented By 'Adults'.

People in that age range generally are not fond of 'adults' and are not inclined to be influenced by them. They are still in the independent and rebellious type age range.

I think far more people in that age group would vote, if there was more about politics presented to them by peers and age appropriate roll models, then all the old fogeys (adults) that they currently have to learn from.

[Webster Green]

16. They don't think politics has any consequence on their lives..

I've done endless voter registration and ballot initiative petition signature gathering.

Half the folks I approach out there (young or old) tell me: "I'm not into politics".

Hoo-boy!:eyes:

[TahitiNut]

18. The Civics curriculum in our public schools has deteriorated enormously since ...

... I attended in the 50s. It's nearly impossible (for me, at least) to find an adequate treatment of propaganda, critical thinking, and the basics of logical argument. All of this was part of my schooling in Junior High and High School. Now it's AP, if offered at all.

I sometimes wished that we were required to pass a GED exam every 5 years or re-enroll in the necessary classes. When I see people taking a perverted kind of PRIDE in failing questions on "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?" I'm disgusted.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

21. I'm young, and I vote.

:shrug:

[Breeze54]

29. Good! - So do my sons and all their friends.

I hope all the younger voters stop for a minute and vote at their primaries and in the General Election on November 8th!

[mondo joe]

22. For one thing, life is generally easier when you're that young.

At that age people typically are healthy and have few obligations or external responsibilities. There isn't the same need for security for self or for children.

[TahitiNut]

26. Once upon a time, anyone between 14 and 18 in a blue collar family ...

... WORKED. Summer jobs and part-time jobs were the ONLY way we could afford the few "fad" items that teen-agers get. Blue suede shoes, 45's, pizza after the game, gas for cruising Woodward ... you name it. ALL of my friends in high school had jobs. We caddied in the summer and worked as stock clerks and baggers in grocery stores and five-and-dime mom&pop stores. The lucky gals worked as car hops at the A&W drive-in. (The lucky guys could afford their own cars - and usually had paper routes.) When I was in high school, the student parking was about two or three dozen cars in a school of about 500 students. (Now it's at least 150.) We actually saved for our own college tuition.

[Breeze54]

37. It's still going on....

at least where I live in MA. There are a lot teens working in the grocery stores, CVS, Walgreen's,
McD's, BK, KFC, Marshall's, etc. And I live in a small town that used to be 'blue collar' but is now
getting over run and built up by yuppies and McMansion housing tracks. But the HS and college kids
are all working from what I've observed and all my sons friends have jobs after school and when on
break from college. Not all those stores are in my town but in nearby towns.

[mondo joe]

40. I'm not sure what that has to do with my post, but... uh, yeah.

[Johonny]

23. Don't you think

the almost total lack of candidates in their age range with their life experiences turns them off. There are people of their age in sports, on stage, in movies... but almost none running for office. At a time in a person’s life when they are most likely to be unreceptive to people with messages outside their age range, they find no one to identify with in politics.

[readmoreoften]

25. Depends on what you mean by "young people". College kids vote. It's the twenty-somethings

and younger working class that we've totally lost.

[readmoreoften]

34. Also, college kids have little interest in or understanding of labor issues...

unless they learned it from their families. Most full-time, live-away college students do not support themselves (I don't mean working 15 hours a week for spending money) and judge their lives based on what they dream they'll become (ie: I'm going to be a famous journalist, a criminal pathologist, an advertising executive) rather than what they'll likely be (a freelance writer/barrista, a paralegal/barrista, an underemployed graphic designer/barrista).

So what you have with college students are millions of people who respond to symbols and rhetoric (not to mention the millions of people who are so critical of symbols and rhetoric that they don't vote).

I've said it before and I'll say it again. I've taught college for 6 years now... I also know a lot of working class, non-college educated folks in their early to late 20s. Many don't vote because they have no faith in the system. They don't believe the Democrats are any better than the Republicans. They fall prey to right-wing economic rhetoric (even those who are quite socially liberal) because they simply don't have a way to measure who to trust.

The fact that the majority of young people have postponed entry into the labor market (as compared to the 70s) has weakened both the youth movements and the labor movement.

You finally realize that you're probably not going to be a movie director or a top magazine editor or an art collector in your 20s. Then you go to grad school to be a librarian or a social worker and after graduation and much debt, you realize it's still difficult to find a job. Then you start thinking about the economy. But by then you're no longer a child.

[DutchLiberal]

27. I think young people don't vote because there's not much to choose.

[SmellsLikeDeanSpirit]

42. They also see elections like 2000, where the guy who gets the most votes loses.

Why vote if my vote won't even matter? I also agree young people don't vote because there aren't enough choices that speak for them. I had to hold my nose to vote for Kerry in 2004 and I wished there was more to choose from.

Get rid of the electoral college, adopt nationwide instant runoff voting, and have more parties and choices, and kids would probably vote more.

If that fails and you still want young people to vote, bring back the draft.

[NeedleCast]

28. Don't relate to Candidates

That was a large part of my issue with voting when I was in my 20s. Now in my mid 30's, it's no so much of a problem.

[Jed Dilligan]

33. The fourth one

Also, perceived corruption of the system.

On edit: Also, voting feels like consenting to be governed. I know that's not what it is, but it feels that way to young people who are mostly outraged at and contemptuous of the parts of the govt. they've encountered (police and schools and social services and courts).

[ileus]

36. too busy smoking pot?

[canoeist52]

41. young vote

I've always asked my kids and their friends who work to look at their paychecks and look how much is taken out. then I say "wouldn't you like a say in how they spend YOUR money?"