What would it take to turn out the youth vote?

Great Debates
21

You’ve got a point there.

We’re spoiled. Deep down, we know that it doesn’t matter all that much who gets elected. They’re all the same. We haven’t had a politician of true vision and leadership in my lifetime, nor do I expect ever to see one.

But, oh well. The cable will still be on, pizza is just a phone call away, and praise God, Wal-Mart will still be open 24/7.

Yeah, maybe some people are losing their jobs, but who cares? I’ve still got mine. Yeah, there’s wars going on on the other side of the world, but who really gives a rat’s ass? How many people could even find the region on the map? Genocide, famine and natural disasters happen over there, and we don’t even pause to listen to the story on Headline News. It doesn’t affect us.

We’re spoiled. We’re fat and happy. We don’t have to think of such unpleasant things as the global ramifications of our actions. Who cares if our current energy policy will fuck up the world in years to come? That’s way in the future, and this is now, and that Hummer just looks so cool. (I can go to Wal-Mart and pack amazing quantities of low-priced sweatshop-made shit I don’t need into its cargo bay!)

We don’t care about such things because we don’t have to. The consequences of our short-sighted greed, explotiation and self-absorbtion are played out far, far away in little pissant countries which will likely never have the capability to project military power within my lifetime-- which means that unless I plan on vacationing in one of them, I’ll never be at risk from their rage.

Our politicians will never do anything about the real problems we face. They carefully distract us with stupid domestic concerns and moral panics, keeping our attention away from what needs it the most. But, when our dull-witted countenances turn toward these issues, they quickly offer a “solution” which has utterly no chance in hell of working, and will actually make the problem worse, but which soothes the teeming masses, lulling them back into pleasant apathy now that “something’s being done.” And, the best part is that by the time we clods figure out that the solution was worse than the problem, that politician will be long gone.

And that’s the way it will always be. We really don’t mind. Our bellies are full, and we have TV. That’s pretty much all we seem to need to keep us from revolting.

22

A decent political science class in voting behavior will also provide some answers.

I don’t have any sites handy, but here are some reasons I remember from my years in school.

  1. Young people tend to move around a lot. This makes registration difficult. College students may change addresses as often as 3 times a year. This also makes following local political news more difficult.

  2. Young people aren’t as established in the community. The 2004 presidential race may have been a bit of an exception, but there is a commonly held view that one vote doesn’t mean much in a national race. Many people who do go out and vote are also very concerned about state and local issues.

  3. Many of the issues don’t have as much of an impact. The new property tax isn’t a big deal to someone who is leaving town next May.

  4. Political participation tends to increase with age. As people settle down and have a rising income, many issues take on greater importance. When you have kids in the school system, you may pay more attention to the local school board. When you have a mortgage, that property tax increase means more than to a renter.

23

Difficult? It may be more difficult than, say, clicking a remote, but it is no more difficult than going out to buy 3 new video games a year. You fill out the little card. You mail it in.

24

I think lissa hit the nail on the head. Maybe if we took away their video games and cable until they get their “I Voted” sticker we could get them off of their asses.

This is the thing about the election that really ticked me off. Speeches were aimed at them. Concerts were held at colleges to motivate them. Still, no voting from the youth.

At this point, a better question would be why try to reach the youth vote at all. It seems to be a losing proposition.

25

For the most part I don’t seen the youth of America being demonized these days.

That’s how insurance works. Is it fair that I should have lower insurance rates then someone else simply because I live in a different county? Do you have any evidence that the police are more likely to let someone off the hook for a moving violation if they are over the age of 20?

It used to bother me that people my age would be the ones getting drafted. As for the jobs, well, isn’t being older and having a bit more life experience worth a little extra to some employers? I’ve found that people past their late teens and early twenties tend to be a bit more reliable and hard working. It isn’t always true of course.

I rarely thought I was getting a bum rap when I was younger. Minor things like clerks at stores not wanting to talk to me and that kind of thing. The one thing that pissed me off was when my college admissions application wanted to know how much my parents made last year. All I could think was “What difference does it make since they’re not footing the bill?”

I’d say teenagers have it pretty darn good in America today. I was 13 just 15 years ago and it was the roughest year of my teenage life. I think society is plenty fair to teens.

Marc

26

Some countries have mandatory voting. Vote or pay a fine. Personally I like the idea of combined voting rooms and brothels better – everybody knows there’s little difference between politicians and whores anyway.

Apparently Republicans are on average more fecund that Democrats. I read someone speculate that the absent Democratic youth vote wasn’t so much missing as never conceived or aborted.

While on the rumours, I also heard that the average age of grandmothers in the Texan county Bush hails from is 35. They’re breeding you out of the White House guys, soon you’ll be gone the way of the dinosaurs, only to be found at the Natural History Museum - and Berkeley University of course.

emm…

27

I have issues with getting out the youth vote which I will take up right after I reply to your question. A lot of responses above give you ideas on specifics but it all comes down to this. To get out the youth vote, you use the same exact same tactic to get the Black vote or the jewish vote or the seniors vote or the hispanic vote. To get the youth vote, you promise them something that will affect their lives in that age bracket. The youths have certain issues and if you respond to that in a convincing way they will go out and vote. Appealing to their “civic duty” with concerts and stupid T-shirts didnt work because they already got what they wanted (concerts and stupid t-shirts) The politicians not knowing what the youth vote really want or need is a clear sign of disconnection that the youth vote can clearly detect which would cause apathy to the whole process becaue neither party addresses their issues. If the youth vote found they had some political power to get what they want, they would rise up like the seniors did and throw their weight around. The free pizza and beer thing is nice were it not illegal. Heck, I vote early just to get free donuts. but think about it, do you really want a president elected by a bunch of cheap freeloaders?

Now to my issues about the youth vote. I dont understand where the democrats get off by saying that if more youths vote, they would sweep the elections. Horse Manure! Its like when Ohio was still counting (very) late on tuesday night and Bush was ahead by a hundred thousand some odd votes. Kerry’s camp goes, “we’re not conceeding because there are still that many provisional votes…” Well Big frikken deal! They automatically assume that 100% of the provisional votes are pro-Kerry, which wouldve been the only way Kerry couldve taken Ohio. Even if 90% of the provisional votes were pro-Kerry, he still wouldve lost. He had to drag this out till 10:00AM PST the next day. In the same token, getting out the youth vote wouldnt have made that significant a change because not all of them are for Kerry. The youth vote is, in all probability, split in the same proportion as the rest of the nation.

28

At least in Michigan, it is a bit harder than that. Students living in dorms on campus cannot change their address from their parents’ house to that of their dorm. To vote absentee, the voter must have registered in person at a Secretary of State office if it will be their first time voting.

The university I attend and teach at is in the south-west part of Michigan, which is a pretty freaking large state. We have students from Detroit, Traverse City, Marquette, Iron Mountain, etc. Going home to vote is extremely inconvenient (and sometimes impossible for those who live in the U.P.). I don’t see why we have this “in-person” restriction in place.

To the state’s credit, they did send around a mobile SoS office to the various universities, but it only came here once.

And, before you ask why they don’t just go to the office here in Kalamazoo, the hours are pretty bad for college students. 9-5 MTRF, 11-7 W. This is when most students are in class, and there is no office on campus. I think that such an office would help; after all, we have a bank, a post office, a McDonalds, a Little Caesars, a barber shop, and a convenience store all on-campus or across the street. We are essentially a small city with no SoS office.

29

That doesn’t really jibe with information from Michigan’s Secretary of State. As I read it, the only in-person visit required for first-time voting is to the voting booth, which seems reasonable since, at some point, identity needs to be checked. And even that requirement is waived if you hand deliver the form to your county, city or township clerk’s office instead of mailing the form, since they can check your identity there. Also, all correspondence can be with local government clerks as well as SoS offices.

30

The voting booth part is the hard part, Lib. That was kind of my point. Kids registering by mail can’t vote absentee. They can’t vote at a local precinct here because it’s not their precinct.

31

The moment you can sit in front of your computer at home and vote is the moment you’ll see massive turnout at the polls, young and old alike.

32

When a person named bongmaster tells you how to get out the youth vote, you listen.

33

What if, hypothetically, a group of religious fundamentalists gained control of the top echelons of the US government and imposed a ban/great restrictions on abortion? Would that energise the youth vote?

34

Why do you assume, Avenger, that young voters would come out of the woodwork to vote against abortion restrictions? They could very well come out in droves to vote in favor of them. Youth doesn’t automatically equal liberalism, nor does one have to be a “religious fundamentalist” to oppose abortion.

I think youngun’s don’t vote because they don’t see anything as relevant to them. They’re in college, they’re getting laid, they’re partying, they’re watching reality TV, Mom and Dad still pay their bills, la-di-dah, what election?

I saw a really great poster at my university: “If you don’t vote, your parents are still running your life.” Maybe that message needs to be drilled into their heads a bit more?

Free pizza and beer would help, too.

35

Err, the little question mark things in my post indicate that it was a question…