The Hide and Seek Game of Millenial Voters

                                         Millennials: The Lost Voting Generation

By: Kendra Wert

With a new primary election quickly approaching and rallies drawing crowds in the thousands one question still remains, where are the millennial voters? Some argue that they aren’t informed enough to vote, others feel like their voice won’t be heard and quite frankly, some just don’t care. Whatever the reason is though political science specialists are concerned with this generations inadequate voting patterns. As the baby boomer generation begins to fade it is up to this new group to ultimately make the decisions that impact their country through local, state, and national elections.

With the millennial population being equal to that of the baby boomer generation having a political voice is crucial



Millennial voter decline is unfortunately not a new phenomenon. For example in 2008, younger citizens (18-24) had the lowest voting rate (49 percent), while citizens who fell into older age groups (45-64 and 65-plus) had the highest voting rates (69 percent and 70 percent, respectively). A recently released study from DoSomething.Org, a website that encourages young people to participate in the voting process found that young voters are more likely to support issues such as legalizing same-sex marriage, supporting a pathway to citizenship for immigrants, and legal abortion than other age demographics. Also it was found that 40% of millennials identify as non-white, making them the most diverse voting generation in history. Since I myself am a millennial voter and I am surrounded by other millennials on a daily basis I wanted to gain some insight as to why young people choose whether or not to vote. In 2008, 62% of youth voters with a college education voted, compared to 36% of those youth without a college education I wanted to see then according to this statistic how Albright compared.

Recently presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders came to Santander Performing Arts Center here in Reading to drum up support for his campaign. Both Sanders and other Democratic hopeful Hilary Clinton have recently been fighting for millennial support at the polls and it appears as though Sanders is winning. According to the Washington Post, the poll of Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 finds that Sanders is by far the most popular presidential candidate among the youngest voters. This group's attitudes on a range of issues have become more liberal in the past year.https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/04/25/bernie-sanders-is-profoundly-changing-how-millennials-think-about-politics-poll-shows/.

Junior Stephan Brown and other Albright students attend a rally held by Bernie Sanders at the Santander Performing Arts Center. The millennials who do vote are choosing Sanders over all other candidates.

Junior Communications major Stephan Brown was one of those in attendance at the recent rally and shared "I support Bernie Sanders because he wants to push the agenda for free education and free healthcare which are 2 things this country desperately needs. Also Bernie stands behind students and understands our struggles in the lower middle class, he just gets it." In one of Harvard's polls of young people in 2014, the number who agreed that "basic health insurance is a right for all people" was 42 percent. That figure increased to 45 percent last year and to 48 percent in recent polls. Still even with students turning out for Sanders rallies many still remain politically independent or just don't think that politics affects them in any way. In a study conducted at California Polytechnic Institute of the 19,000 students on campus only 1,400 were registered to vote. That was even lower than the nationwide 1-in-5 rate at which college-age Americans will go to the polls in November.http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2015/01/15/seeking-political-support-colleges-prod-students-to-vote  

But reaching young voters won’t be as easy as sharing videos on Facebook, or talking about the cost of college, or hoping that enough of them have settled down with kids. There’s a far bigger barrier than inattention: Mistrust.Every year, Harvard’s Institute of Politics surveys 18-to-29-year-olds across the country about their attitudes toward politics and public service. This year’s survey asked how much millennials trust a range of institutions to “do the right thing” all or most of the time. The president? 36 percent. Congress? 18 percent. Predictable, maybe; Jon Stewart moaned about those people every night.

Bruce Auerbach, a political science professor here at Albright feels that Students aren't voting because they simply feel they don't have time. He says " Students are worried about classwork, careers, jobs, their social life and more. They really feel like they have time even though many of them hold a strong political voice."

Whatever the reason is that Students aren't voting it is clear that they have a voice and that it should be heard. There are new ways with the development of technology that allow students time to vote from Apps on their phone. To the students who think their voice doesn't matter it does, because we must make the most that we can out of where we live and deciding who is going to represent us as a leader and meet our needs is vital.