By Robby Fineman
Creative Director of Procrastinate Here
In October of 1917, Alice Paul was arrested for peacefully protesting for women’s suffrage. She was so committed to her protest that she went on a hunger strike while in prison; she was force-fed in the name of her political beliefs.
In 1920, with the passing of the 19th Amendment, Paul and other suffragists finally achieved their dream. Fewer than 100 years later, countless young adults are rebuffing her hard work and that of countless other protesters by not voting in elections.
According to The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE), only 51% of citizens between the ages of 18 and 29 cast ballots in the 2008 presidential election. Four years later, only 45% of 18 to 29 year olds voted in the 2012 presidential election.
Moreover, over 50% of these young adults are not acting on their civic duty and responsibilities.
In America’s defense, this downward trend in youth voting is a universal problem, but it is most prevalent in the United States. Table 8.2 in James Q. Wilson’s American Government Institutions & Politics 13th Edition ranks 15 democratic nations by percentage of voter turnout since 1945. The United States ranked last, with 47.7%, in percentage of voting-age population and second-to-last, with 66.5%, in percentage of registered voters.
The United States’ number is coming closer and closer to zero percent with every new election.
Out of the 26 members of the voting-age population who filled out an informal survey, 11 said that they were not registered to vote. The primary reason for not registering was that they “have not gotten around to it” or “did not have enough time.”
Many still consider registering to vote to be too taxing of a process. South senior Sophie Delaney says that she would register if she “didn’t need three hours“ in order to complete the application.
Still, the U.S. has tried on multiple occasions to make it easier to register to vote.
“There is myriad portals through which to access information in this world,” Newton-born Ward Two Alderman-at-Large Jacob Auchincloss said. “I think it’s a civic responsibility to inform yourself and to vote. This is an incredible privilege.”
The creation of online voter registration forms and the passing of 1993’s Motor-Voter Law, by which one could register to vote when he or she renews a driver’s license, are primary examples of attempts to improve and simplify the registration process.
Another principal reason why fewer citizens between the ages of 18-29 are voting is because they do not consider themselves to be well-informed or connected to a candidate.
“MTV, back in the 90s, had ‘Rock the Vote,’” Newton South American history teacher Deborah Linder said. “I think they helped a lot in getting young people involved.”
Linder remembers watching Bill Clinton interview with a young MTV reporter and answer “hip,” more relatable questions. She believes that because Clinton portrayed his views on a medium that is popular with young people, they felt more connected to him and were thus more willing to vote.
Linder notes that Clinton’s method was similar to Obama’s campaign in 2008. Obama’s get-out-the-vote strategy stressed a heavy social media presence and ideas that appeal to demographics with lower voting statistics, such as blacks and Latinos. Because of this, the 2008 election featured a huge spike in youth voter turnout.
“I think it’s a civic responsibility to inform yourself and to vote. This is an incredible privilege” – Jacob Auchincloss
The voter turnout is lowest in a year of only local elections. According to Auchincloss, approximately 80% of Newton’s 55,000 voting eligible population vote for president; that percentage is under 20% in local elections.
At the national level, only 19.9% of citizens between the ages of 18 and 29 voted in 2014. In the aforementioned informal survey, only four of 73 people put more weight on local elections than on national elections.
“I think that local elections have more of an effect on your day-to-day life because the decisions that aldermen and mayors and school committee people make are going to affect me,” South senior Daniel Rosenzweig-Ziff said.
Rosenzweig-Ziff believes that local elections and his interactions with his local government are more important than his interactions with the federal government. “Income tax isn’t really a huge deal for me. Immigration is not gonna affect my day-to-day life. War is not gonna affect my day-to-day life,” he said.
As a high schooler with residence in only one city, Rosenzweig-Ziff sees his local government as representative of his interests and his community directly, whereas in the national government, there is a much wider range of interests that need to be met that are not always relevant to him.
Newton North senior Nicholas Ambrosio, however, disagrees with Rosenzweig-Ziff’s theory and believes that national elections carry more weight.
“I’m not gonna live here very much longer I guess,” Ambrosio said. “And there’s not a huge impact on my daily life.”
According to Auchincloss, a large portion of young adults who do not vote in local elections are college students.
“College students, because they’re within a campus bubble, don’t really have any skin in the game for the state or local governments where they’re at,” he said. “And they don’t have any skin in the game for the state local governments from where they came from because they don’t have any property back there.”
College students are stuck in a gray area where they are not truly part of the community that their college is in, but they are also not a true part of their hometown.
Linder agrees that these students are in a gray area, but notes that it is more than just a geographic issue.
“I think for people, when they start to have their own jobs, when they pay their mortgage, when they have kids, that’s when they start to really care and it affects them to do something politically,” she said. “Until they start to really live the life of an adult, politics might not seem as important to them.”
Despite the decrease in the youth vote, 52 out of 56 citizens under 18 who completed the informal survey say that once they turn 18, they are going to register and vote.
Still, these numbers may be deceptive. Delaney, for instance, who said that she was planning on voting during the Nov. 3 elections, was not reported to have voted on Nov. 4.
