No, this is not your usual article telling you to vote for a particular candidate or to tell you to stop complaining about a certain issue. It’s simply an informative piece on why voting is so important as a millennial. I do not care if you’re a democrat or republican, I just care that you’re involved, and that we can debate on issues that matter to our country. Being a political science major, I become frustrated when I hear my friends say they won’t vote because they do not care enough about who wins, or do not feel like they know enough about politics to make a rational decision. I mean, I know I am much different than my peers on how involved I am in the political world. I started working on President Obama’s campaign as an 8th grader, and I watched CNN and MSNBC as an after-school activity. It’s totally okay if you don’t go through these levels of extreme to find out more about certain topics, but it’s time that we as millennials take over and vote for laws that will affect us the most when we are adults.
It’s clear, older people vote more often than younger people. Upworthy.com conducted a survey before the 2012 presidential election, and only 48.5 percent of 18-24 year olds voted in 2008, while roughly 70 percent of people age 50 or older who were registered to vote went to the polls (August 28, 2012). The percentage is even lower when it comes to midterm elections, which is even more alarming because local and state government affects citizens more than national elections do. I have heard many people react over what happened in North Carolina with the House Bill 2 and Transgender rights, but how many of those people were 18-24 year olds that went to the polls and voted for Governor McCrory? In fact, only 57 percent of North Carolina millennials are active, registered voters, who are qualified to vote, and when Pat McCrory assumed office only 21 percent of registered millennials came out to the polls and voted (Old North State Politics, January 25, 2015). With 37 percent of registered North Carolina millennials voters registered as either democrats or independents, it could have significantly impacted the outcome of the election, and stopped McCrory as governor (ibid). This terrifies me as a political science major.
So what do I suggest? I think it’s time for us as college students to step up and control our fate. Many of these politicians who were voted in by people twice our age are the ones in charge of our tuition increase, or in control of how much money our schools get from state funds, and I think it's only fair that we have more of a say on things that affect us the most. So whether you decide to be a republican, democrat, or independent, make sure to go out to the polls, know the laws in your state, decide whether you want to vote in your college’s state or county (yes, this is a thing), and if you’re too busy to wait in line, get an absentee ballot. Yes, not much about politics is exciting, and as college students, we live busy lives, but if you take one minute or two out of your day to learn more about the laws in your state or college’s state, and go out and vote, we as a generation can make a huge impact on society.
