Its Not That We Don’t Care
Those that vote believe that the younger generation people are lazy, arrogant, and too selfish to vote. Putting the blame of the state of the world on millennials, including those under the age of 25. The United States has the lowest rate of younger voters than the rest of the world. In all elections, the number of older voters is at least two times the rate of younger people. Historically, progress is being made but the fact is that young people do not come close to the number of older people that vote.
A popular belief is that younger people do not vote because they think their vote doesn’t matter and won’t change anything in the long haul. The younger generation of voters feel stuck, they feel like they are not educated enough to participate in elections. They feel like voting is uncharted territory, depressing, and in the end like they are just one vote and it won’t matter. The task of voting involves having a greater understanding of worldly and social issues that they are not necessarily prepared to take on. For the younger generation it is overwhelming and depressing to some degree. Today’s young people are very interested in politics, and have a great desire for change. All this being said, if the younger generation are this frustrated then why aren’t the polls filled with them?
Based on recent voter research, there are many obstacles blocking the young peoples’ paths to getting to the poles, including the provisional ballots, voter identification laws, and the issue of accessible polling locations. For many voters who work multiple jobs and are participating in public schools, have inflexible hours that create barriers to voting. In fact, according to many studies and claims, one of the most common reasons for not voting is simply being too busy during open poll hours. Due to progression, waiting in line for multiple hours to vote is starting to become a thing of the past. Mail-in ballots and online voter registration is making the process less complicated. The fact of the matter is though, to make the younger generation more comfortable with the voting process, skills need to be implemented into our educational system. Schools need to do a better job at educating their students on understanding political issues, by involving them in civic and political actions, helping them register, and teaching them the fundamental skills needed to follow through and vote. The schooling system used to provided and educate their students on these topics but in the last two decades the views of what teachers should be teaching have changed, and these topics have disappeared.
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