Youth Voting

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Recommended: The youth's political and social interests that needs to be addressed in voting

Youth voters have been seen in fewer and fewer numbers in the polls in the last elections. They have seemed to lost the feeling of interest and civil duty in voting, that the generations before them have felt. According to The Circle, since 1972 the voters aged 18 through 24 have declined 13 to 15 percentage points. Young people are uninterested in voting. They grew up in a time where politics were not popular and a sense of not caring about politics has been instilled in them. Youth are not concerned with getting to the polls to vote because they feel like their votes do not matter and their opinion is not heard. The youth voters’ low rates of voting can be due to a simple explanation such as they just do not care about politics, or that …show more content…

It is not as simple as going to your local DMV or church and casting your vote for a majority of eighteen to twenty-four-year old’s’. To legally vote a citizen must be in their county which they claim permanent residency in. If they are unable to be present in that county, they must claim an absentee ballot. Which for most eighteen-year olds’ will be quite challenging if they are living anywhere other than their home. So, anyone attending college, going into the military or just traveling will have to go through a whole process in order to cast a vote. Jane Eisner, explains in her book, Taking Back the Vote: Getting American Youth Involved in Our Democracy, that “…my college-aged daughter had to fill out an application for the absentee ballot, send it in, wait for ballot, fill that out and send it back in time to be counted in the election” (Eisner 58). The process a college student has to go through to vote may seem easy to older voters, but it is actually quite grueling. A college student is constantly worrying about grades, eating right, sleeping enough and extracurricular activities. Registering to vote is not a top priority for them so they are most like not going to remember to request a ballot and send it back in time. Some youths do not want to deal with the hassle of casting an absentee ballot, so they do not vote. Absentee ballots are a major reason youth voters are not showing up the in the polls in higher

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