Written by Abby Zajac

 

How often do we vote for something that doesn’t have a direct impact on our lives? Some of us grew up calling in votes for American Idol, and some still do today, however we have even seen trends for competitive television shows change. Viewers and fans can now vote via social media.

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If young adults can vote for something as simple as the entertainment industry, than why do fewer people go to the voting polls during political elections? Many of us will say that we are guilty of voting for something that does not directly impact our community. However, who you vote to represent your city council, your local government and the presidency, have an impact on not only the way you live your life but the attitude in which you address it.

 

Angel Sims, a junior studying psychology at Samford University, serves as vice president for development on the Student Government Association Executive Board. Part of her role within SGA is to lead Freshman Forum. For years, one of the projects that Freshman Forum produces each fall is a voter engagement day, where they encourage students to register to vote and request absentee ballots. This year Freshman Forum’s voter engagement day was on Sept. 25, which was also National Voter Registration Day.

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This year a record-breaking 800,000 people nationally registered to vote ahead of 2018 midterm elections, including participation at Samford University and other colleges. Being approximately a month away from the last day to register to vote in the state of Alabama, Oct. 22, students were aware of the steps they needed to take for registration and absentee ballots.

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“Our generation has a reputation of complaining and being entitled without putting action to our words,” Sims says. “While I disagree with that completely, I see partly where it comes from. College students and young adults are often at the forefront of major social change movements. However, I often hear a lot of people our age not vote or vote blindly. Once people realize that their voice actually matters, then we'll be in a much better place as a country and society.”

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For 35 years The Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics has conducted a National Youth poll focusing on political opinions and civic engagement of young Americans ages 18 to 29. The IOP has found through this survey that young voters are voting based on issues, and most have illustrated they are planning to vote based on issues they are for or against. Some of the issues mentioned are immigration, stricter gun laws, legalization of medical marijuana, and privacy.

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Sims defines voter engagement as “the concept that voters, as part of their civic duty, ought to be fully engaged mentally and physically invested and involved in the voting process.”

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As a college student or young adult, you may be asking yourself a lot of controversial questions to know which side you stand on. Do you lean to the left or to the right? Are you going to vote based on issues or the party you identify with? Will you fill out an absentee ballot or vote where you are locally? None of these questions are life or death, but if more young adults became educated voters there would be a chain reaction to change politics as we know it.

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Sims says “We are the next and even current generation of leaders, so we ought to be heading the efforts of being informed while voting and treating it as the privilege and blessing it is.”

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According to the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, the number of young people who protest has tripled since 2016. Among the 18- to 24-year-olds who participated in the poll, 22% said they had engaged in at least one form of offline activism. That includes attending a march, making a statement, participating in a union strike, but it does not include liking a page on Facebook or following a twitter account. History tells us that by acting within politics people are more likely to vote on election day.

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The Center  for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement concluded in 2016 that an estimated 23.7 million young voters participated in the 2016 presidential election, being 50% of citizens aged 18-20 in the United States.

 

In conclusion, every individual votes for a different reason. You could hate one candidate and want to do everything in your power to make sure they don’t hold a position in office. You could want to exercise your legal right. Maybe a relative encouraged you to register and a friend dragged you to the polls. Regardless of your situation, there is no point in complaining about the political actions taken by others if you are not willing to positively impact your community by voting.