If you could decide an election, would you vote?
If so, start registering, requesting absentee ballots, and voting early because the 2008 presidential election may be decided by the youth vote (ages 18-24). The evidence: higher youth voter turn-out in both the 2008 presidential primaries and in the past two general presidential elections.
If our generation lives up to the current hype, Barack Obama will win the presidency in a huge victory, political science professor Bill Grover says.
Last spring, youth primary turnout increased 8 percent from the 2000 primary, according to The Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning & Engagement.
In the previous two general elections, youth voter turnout steadily increased from 36 percent in 2000 to 47 percent in 2004. Currently 61 percent of youth have said they will definitely vote in 2008, according the Century Foundation Youth Vote 2008 Issue Brief.
"If your age group turns out, this election is over.” |
| - William Grover, professor of political science |
Record turnout and registration is good news, but in a country which has the lowest turn-out of all industrialized democratic nations, according to Grover, we face another close election in which the race is within 10 points. This generation is still missing almost half of eligible voters, who either haven’t registered or have, but don’t know if they will vote, in a time when it really does count.
“Everybody knows your age-group has registered in record numbers, but everybody also knows your age- group historically tends not to turn out,” Grover says. “Getting people to vote the first time is different than getting people to register for the first time. If your age-group turns out, this election is over.”
Besides the obvious chance to make history this year, there are several historical examples for why your vote counts. Even if you don’t buy the “youth rule the election” argument, take a local example in which every vote was important.
Even in Vermont, where political ideologies are typically liberal and a conservative vote gets lost to all the liberal ones, every vote counts. In the 1981 Burlington mayoral elections, Socialist Bernie Sanders won after a very close vote that resulted in a recount.
He won by a mere 10 votes.
Not only is voting a mechanism for imminent change, but it's a necessary part of democracy. |
Imagine how many people on both sides were holding their breath during the initial count and recount, wishing they had voted in that election. Sanders went on to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives and is currently serving in the U.S. Senate.
“His whole career was launched by a margin of 10 votes,” Grover says.
This may be an example from a local election, but it could happen nationally, and has. President Bush won Florida by 193 votes in 2000, and he won by just over 100,000 votes in the 2004 Ohio election, according to CNN. Who’s to say a narrow count won’t occur this year in a close by and contested state like New Hampshire?
Not only is voting a mechanism for imminent change, but it’s a necessary part of democracy. If no one participated, we wouldn’t have the freedoms and rights our ancestors asserted through those same mechanisms.
“I want people to vote because I want them to get used to the idea that part of participation is voting; I want them to get into the habit of translating their desires and their hopes into real action,” Grover says. “Voting is one step in a much more involved process of participation and social movement.”
Seventy-five percent of young voters are currently registered to vote. If you’re one of them, don’t pat yourself on the back yet. Get the polls, and do your civic duty. If you aren’t registered, this is the time to start participating in democracy; assert your hopes, desires, and values by starting a lifetime habit.
After it’s all over, slap on your “I voted” sticker and congratulate yourself by heading to Ben and Jerry’s for some free ice cream. |
