Young Adult Voters: A Case Study

Since 1972, youth voter turnout has been on the decline. According to the Child Trends Databank, 50 percent of Americans aged 18 to 24 participated in the 1972 presidential election (2015). Nearly three decades later, the percentage of young adults aged 18 to 24 who voted in the 2000 presidential election had dropped eighteen

It also proves that the younger people show less interest in our country, and less responsibility for important issues. Do we really want more young people voting? I dont think so.

Voting has not always been as easy as it is today. It is interesting to examine how far America has progressed in its process of allowing different types of people to be able to vote. Voting was once aimed at a particular group of people, which were white males that owned their own property. Today, most people over the age of eighteen can vote, except for the mentally incompetent or people who have been convicted of major felonies in some states. The decline of voter participation has always been a debate in the public arena. According to McDonald and Popkin, it is “the most important, most familiar, most analyzed, and most conjectured trend in recent American political history (2001, 963)” The question is, how important is voter

In chapter one, Wattenberg discusses the declining trends of Americans who regularly read newspapers between the 1960’s and present day. This can be attributed the aging patterns among generations who frequently read newspapers as well as with the use of technology rising. Reading the newspaper is a habit that either is or is not developed by the time one reaches voting age. With this, newspapers have become an older generation’s primary source of information, however, are still the best source for political matters. Younger generations tend to be more computer literate and have grown up with television and media more accessible to them than the previous generation. These trends not only reflect in American culture, but in other countries

The main point according Martin P. Wattenberg in Is Voting For Young People is that young people today do not vote during elections as much compared to other voting groups. Young people today are politically unengaged. “These state patterns of voting participation can be confirmed on the national level by the Census Bureau’s 2010 survey data. Among U.S. citizens under the age of 30 in 2010, only 24 percent reported that they voted.” (Page-188, IVYP) The low attendance of young people voting in Presidential elections indicates that young people do not care enough about politics to participate.

In the last federal election only 43 per cent of people under age 34 cast ballots, compared to 65 per cent of older voters. If social media isn’t getting young voters than the question continues of what will. Many do believe it is the schools system that didn’t encourage political movement throughout early childhood. In addition it has been proven that if something is not nurtured at a young age, the chances of it ever being put into action is doubted. Many of the families whose parents voted, the children followed and their children. Therefore, creating a clear pattern if young people didn’t start early the likely hood of them ever starting depends on their demand for change. “It used to be that researchers expected that, as young people got older, they would show up in higher numbers at the ballot box — but the ‘Life Cycle Effect’, as it’s been called, looks like it’s starting to fade. The voters that are not showing up now are not likely to show up later, either. That has dire implications for our

Young voter turnout has historically been disproportionately lower than all other voting groups. In California alone, as indicated in the California Civic Engagement Project, conducted by UC Davis during the 2012

The opponents of this campaign argue that these teenagers are not old enough to vote and they will not make informed decisions. Counter augments follow that lowering

Canada’s voter turn-out is decreasing every year with now only 60% of Canadians voting in the federal election. Most of the non-voters consist of youth, where the majority of the votes come from seniors. Political observers have argued that mainstream politicians ignore youth concerns because they know youth are less likely to vote then seniors. This statement is true and has a negative effect on Canadian youth and Canada as a whole. The negative effects lead to the consequences of the youth feeling unimportant, youth not putting the effort to get educated about politics, and to the lowering turn out of Canadians voters.

An article written by a man named Daniel M. Shea brought up points regarding why there is lower turnout among young voters than those of older age groups. The author of the article is the director the Goldfarb Center of Public Affairs and Civic Engagement and a professor of government at Colby College. The main theme of the article is that there are a lot of reasons why young adults are politically apathetic and the author’s bias is that voter apathy is something that should be thought of as a concerning thing to citizens of the U.S.

Since a robust voter turnout is instrumental to the functioning of a healthy democracy, the ongoing decline of youth voter turnout in Canada is highly alarming. According to the Canadian Election Study, the reported voter turnout among Canadians aged 18 to 24 dropped from 83 percent in 1974 to 60 percent in 2000 (Barnes and Virgint, 2010). The aim of this paper is to explain this decline. While it is generally accepted that people’s propensity to vote increases as they age in their “life-cycle”, it does not provide an adequate explanation for the decline of voter turnout among young Canadians. This paper argues that the decline of youth electoral participation in Canada is, by and large, “generational” in nature – it can be attributed by the underlying characteristics of the youth generation. Young Canadians are more apathetic towards the political process, have a lower level of political knowledge, and view voting as less of a moral obligation than older Canadians and young Canadians in past generations.

dominance of religion in states changed women’s views from conservative to more liberal, because states that lowered their religious values faster saw changes in women’s voting behaviors move to the left side much faster than those that took longer (Emmenegger and Manow, 2014).

this low voting rate was attributed to a general lack of feeling of responsibility. As young adults age, marry, and become parents, their sense of community and responsibility increases, while their apathy toward voting decreases, (Abramson 116). Another reason for low voter turnout numbers for 18 to 24-year-olds is their generally low levels of party loyalties. Not having strong party ties decreases one's incentive to vote.

I. Open with Impact: College students believe they don’t need to vote and find it a waste of time since our “votes” don’t matter or don’t change anything.

Others might argue that young people are, to a significant degree, lack of enough life experience, less mature than older people, and usually being easily influenced by mood, bias opinion. They raise concerns that the Electoral Commission considers maturity is an essential issue when it comes to the choosing the effective voting age. The young generation lacks social awareness as well as responsibility hence will be biased or can easily be bribed to vote for a specific candidate. Although I agree with the concerns, I still insists that it is too rash to measure the maturity of a person by simply using his or her age. There are some teenagers who possess the understanding, capacities, and motivation of voting than the older people. I agree with