The results are in, the pundits are pontificating and a lot of people are saying ‘young people didn’t turn out’. Well, in general, they’re right – young people had really low turnout, but it’s a lot more nuanced than low-turnout election numbers. Low turnout in lower profile races (for ALL voters) is not surprising and not the death of the youth vote as we know it (as some might want you to believe – or hope). As for young people, I think there is a major reason why turnout went down:
- In 2008, there was a candidate and a campaign that spent an enourmous amount of resources talking to and targeting young people – and you know what? They responded and elected him.
This is not a partisan thing, this is an ‘address my issues and I’ll consider giving you my vote’ thing. But ultimately, I don’t put much stock in 2009 election turnout, what I know is that we are taking our anger, passion and hope to advocate on the issues we care about. Health care, the environment, lowering the cost of higher education, human rights and so on and so on.
I’m excited about seeing real change on those issues and building towards the next big national election (put it on your calendars, Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010).
To the future,
Mary
Tags: 2009 elections
This, to some individuals, will certainly come across as a smartass question, however I’m serious:
If RTV is waiting on a candidate to target young voters to get them excited about voting, then what exactly is the purpose RTV serves today? Where was the GOTV effort from RTV? The first post on the blog concerning the elections was made the day before the election. If you want the youth vote to increase might I suggest more talk about local elections?
If the politicians don’t start courting the younger voters sspecifically, perhaps RTV will cease to exist. Perhaps they could just change their name to the AAYP and get it over with, because they clearly only want to encourage voting when it fits their cause. It has nothing to do with simply getting people to register (regardless of their political affiliation).
Sean Foushee! Sean Foushee!
i didn’t forget about you did you forget about me
and this will come across as a smartass question but
what is the purpose you serve today? what are you trying to accomplish do you even want people to vote
all i see you do is grumble like the forty-year old mustachioed small business owner you are
the post is trying to remind candidates to support youth issues like health care reform / student loans / legalization (actually they don’t talk much about legalization here) / gay marriage rights / net neutrality
things that are popular among young people and which would earn them votes
now you’re probably going to come back and be like no, what’s popular among young people is gumption and patent medicine and such
and you’re going to be wrong and i will shake my head and click my tongue
shoeless: i registered through rtv and they didn’t ask me what my party affiliation was, they just showed up at school and registered everyone they support a lot of democratic policies because young people support a lot of democratic policies read the polls
i think rock the vote it awesome!! i pooped my pants!