Engaging Young Voters

Historically speaking, younger people who are eligible to tend to vote in lower numbers than their older counterparts. Explanations for low voter turnout among younger populations have ranged from voter apathy among this demographic to the presence of suppressive barriers in state-run election systems.

In recent years, we have seen the emergence of national and state organizations like Campus Vote Project and Rise Texas work to reverse this trend by vamping up outreach to younger voters. These organizations host voter registration drives on hundreds of high school and college campuses to get young people more excited about exercising their right to vote. But are these efforts enough? My younger sister will finally be old enough to vote for the first time in the upcoming 2020 General Election. She has seen civic organizations visit her high school to help students get registered to vote, but she believes there’s a critical disconnect in their method of reaching students. “ In the hallways, you see a bunch of people standing around saying, ‘Hey! Are you ready to go vote? Let’s get you registered to vote!’," my sister says, speaking of people from these organizations.

“But they don’t know how overwhelming it can seem if you don’t know a lot about the voting process,” she says. “Honestly, a lot of people (teenagers and young adults) are not really well informed in general.” By the time many young voters like my sister head to the polls to cast their ballots for the first time, they have long forgotten the lessons about government and politics they learned in middle school civics. They may not understand how to go about understanding their political ideology or determining which candidates align most with their views. Casting your vote shouldn’t have to feel like taking a test that you never reviewed any material for. I know I have certainly felt that way in the past as I voted for candidates whose names I had never even seen or heard before. So yes, I have “eeny, meny, miny,moed” my way through a few ballots. However, it doesn’t have to be that way for any voter. Resources such as voter guides exist to assist voters in choosing which candidates their views are most aligned with. For the longest time, I had no idea that I could take a (printed) voters guide into the polls with me to reference as I vote.

Gen Z is expected to make up nearly 40 % of the 2020 electorate, and that figure will only continue to increase going forward. I am by no means saying that the campus registration drives being carried out by civic organizations are not useful in helping to promote increased voter turnout among the younger demographic. I do believe, however, that these strategies alone are not sufficient to transform the attitudes of the younger generations toward voting and involvement in the political process. It’s not enough simply to encourage them to vote. There should be an equal effort by these organizations to educate young people on key civic matters and to help them become more aware of their (personal) political viewpoints. This way, they can vote with greater confidence and clarity. I encouraged my younger sister to begin by taking a political typology quiz. I told her about websites such as the League of Women Voters, which offer printable voters guides for use on Election Day. There’s nothing wrong with preselecting your candidates and adding notes to your voter's guide to help you as you cast your votes at the polls.

As we urge young people to exercise their right to vote, let’s also help them navigate through the process.