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
