Although there are 44 million eligible young voters ages 18-29, in 2012 only 45% of them voted. These young people make up one fifth, or 21%, of the eligible voting population, yet they often do not vote. Voting is a tremendous gift. Young people in many other countries around the world have to fight to gain this right. In America, voting is often taken for granted by all age groups, but the youth take it for granted the most. In this paper, the reason why young people do not vote will be explored and solutions as to how to get them to vote will be proposed.
According to The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) there are five main reasons why young people don’t vote. The graph they presented uses census survey data from 2010 for citizens 18-24. The graph was broken down into two groups, those who are and are not in college. The first reason cited was being away from home or out of town, 23% of college students stated this and only 5% of people not in college stated this. 8% of college students said they forgot to vote, and over 12% of those not in college said they forgot to vote or send in a ballot. For students in college, 12% versus 19% of those not in college said that the reason they did not vote is because they were not interested or felt their vote did not count. Another reason for not voting was being too busy or stating that voting conflicted with work for 35% of college students and 30% of those not in colleges. Lastly “other reasons” to not vote was listed as the number one category in those not in college at 33% and 21% for those in college.
With every survey taken there are limitations. Within this survey people could have not wanted to say their true reasons for not votin...
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...responsibilities and freedoms given by the right to vote.
Works Cited
• Green, Donald. "Youth Voting” THE CENTER FOR INFORMATION & RESEARCH ON CIVIC LEARNING AND ENGAGEMENT. Tufts University, 2012. Web. 02 Oct 2013. .
• Green, Donald. The Effects of an Election Day Voter Mobilization Campaign Targeting Young Voters. Yale University, 2004. Web. .
• Narod, A. "Youth Voting Stats « YDA – Young Democrats of America." YDA Young Democrats of America. YDA, n.d. Web. 15 Nov. 2013. .
• Tisch, Jonathan . "Why Young People Don’t Vote." THE CENTER FOR INFORMATION & RESEARCH ON CIVIC LEARNING AND ENGAGEMENT. Tufts University, 13/05/11. Web. 03 Oct 2013. .
On the national civics assessment, “two-thirds of 12th graders scored below ‘proficient’…and only 9 percent could list two ways a democracy benefits from citizen participation” (O’Connor and Romer 4). The information provided clarifies just how little students know about democracy. Without education on the subject, they are unaware as to how their government contribution is beneficial and why it is needed in the first place. The students, because of their lack of understanding, therefore choose to not take part in their government and fail to carry out their duties as a citizen. The authors provide more research that shows “the better people understand our history and system of government, the more likely they are to vote and participate in the civic life” (O’Connor and Romer 8).
...adults compared to older adults were less likely to respond that voting was extremely important for good citizenship (133). He concludes that it is too late for the generation of young adults that do not feel voting is an important civic responsibility, however, that it is not too late to convince them that politics matter by showing them that they are giving their opportunity to make important decisions that may impact their lives to others who have different ideas. One may agree with Wattenberg’s idea that habits follow people throughout their lives instead of changing as they cycle in life. His personal accounts are an impactful way to illustrate the importance of building a sense of duty at a young age and carrying that responsibility throughout one’s life.
Many political analysts argue that engagement is an important characteristic of democracy, yet the younger generation is indifferent towards politics. They’re more interested in the latest iPhone technology than in campaigning or voting. In The Good Citizen: How a Younger Generation Is Reshaping American Politics, author Russell J. Dalton counters this with the idea that Gen X’ers are still engaged, just in a different way.
Someone may not want to vote because they might not know was going on in government and do not want to take part in something they are not familiar with. Another reason why a youth voter would not want to vote is that they do not care enough about voting to vote.
Samples, John. "Three Myths about Voter Turnout." Political Analysis. N.p., 14 Sept. 2004. Web. 2 Dec. 2013. .
Evidence of this is according to the United States Election Project by George Mason University, when required to vote the percent of voters 18-29 years old increased. The more education a person has the more likely they will vote. In 2004, 56.4% of students with a high school diploma voted but in the same year 72.2% of students with some college or bachelor’s degree voted. Therefore the difference is between students with a college or bachelor's degree and a high school diploma is 15.8%. This evidence helps explain why Americans should be required to vote because if compulsory voting is applied then young voters’ percent will increase since most of young voters go to school and don't want to pay a
It is our civic right and duty to actively participate in governmental affairs. This recent election really highlighted the divide in opinion regarding the importance of governmental participation. “To many, our democratic system seems so broken that they have simply lost faith that their participation could really matter,” West writes in his essay entitled The Deep Democratic Tradition in America. Young people feel unimportant and irrelevant, which explains the lack in turnout from young voters ages 18-29. However, it wasn’t just young voters that didn’t turnout. Millions of eligible voters didn’t show up for the 2016 elections. A democracy without active participants is a democracy bound for
It’s very unsettling to know that there was a six percent decrease in young voters (ages 18-29) in the 2012 election compared to 2008 (Circle Youth data). In 2007 the National Conference of State Legislatures publicly released a report and data set on voter turnout in democratic countries. This is a quote from that report titled Getting out the Vote, “It should be noted that in 1972, 18-year-olds were added to the eligible voting population, thus decreasing the percentages. Nonetheless, voter tu...
Among the many ways Americans can participate in politics, voting is considered one of the most common and important ways for Americans to get involved. The outcome of any election, especially at the national level, determines who will be making and enforcing the laws that all Americans must abide by. With this in mind one might assume that all Americans are active voters, but studies show the voter turnout is actually astonishingly low. With this unsettling trend it is important to know what statistics say about voter turnout as was as the four major factors that influence participation: Socioeconomic status, education, political environment, and state electoral laws, in order to help boost turnout in future elections.
Research has brought about an abundance of reasons why youth are becoming less engaged in the political process. Education, absence of political knowledge, the media and family influence, indifference to election campaigns, inadequate amount of change, and lack of motivation are all possible factors in influencing the youth voter turnout.
Political inactivity on the part of young Americans stems from one fundamental source -- a general cynicism of the American political process. This disdain for politics is further perpetuated by a lack of voter education and a needlessly archaic voting procedure that creates barriers to voting where they need not exist. While many of these existing problems can be rectified with relative ease through the implementation of programs such as Internet voting and better voter education, such programs create only a partial solution.
Today in America, less than half of young voters between the ages of 18 and 24 vote (TheBestColleges.org). What most of these new adults fail to realize, is that their government depends on them to vote and elect new leaders to represent their country. Many of them make excuses to avoid voting, when really, they benefit most from voting.
America’s low voter turnout has been attributed to the political parties’ failure to enliven the potential voters with the awareness and competitiveness in elections and the overall difficulty of the registration and voting process. The research portion of this project was predominantly provided from four books focused on voter turnout, whether it was perceived to be increasing or decreasing. The article was found using one of the books and altogether the sources provided analytical and institutional perspectives on American voter turnout. I believe voter turnout, along with voter registration, is steadily declining in America due to multiple factors, though the topics touched on above are largely impacting us today.
What many young people lack in voting is the motivation to do something, and if they were to truly have it they would go out and vote. Take Ben Miller, the teen in the article, who said that he didn’t really have anything he was motivated to vote about. When asked if he were to have attended a candidate forum on his own when he couldn’t vote, he said “No way!” Teens are people who need a lot of motivation to do something, and when it’s something they strongly believe in they go all
Voting for the Young Population Teens all over the world under the age of 18 are waiting one more year to vote even though so many of them already have the knowledge and maturity to vote. Many people believe that teens can’t vote because they don't pay taxes but the fact is that this isn't entirely true due to research done by many scientist around the world. Many studies have been done on teen and their knowledge of the political issues we face today. So teens all around the world should be able to vote at the age of 17, although the age is only one year younger this can have a number of effects on the voting community.