Newsweek: Why is it so difficult to get young people to vote?
Malia Lazu, Democracy Action Project: I do not think you can blame the victims. People do not vote because they do not have trust in the system.
Gideon Yago, MTV: I think that it just comes down to the fact that young people feel like they don’t have a stake in politics.
Newsweek: Isn’t it cooler to be against something than for something?
Charles Hill, Hip Hop Political Convention: I think it is cool to stand for something. Unfortunately apathy is the issue at hand and that means you are neither for or against anything.
Tai Anderson, Third Day: I think there is a greater cultural issue at the core of the problem. We are sort of trained by polically correct TV and media that there is no real right or wrong. It’s just up to you to decide. If you buy into that, why get passionate about anything? Those that do are just fringe radicals. Let’s face it. Our generation can be pretty lazy. I’m glad that MTV is trying to change the stereotype of what cool is from an apathetic “Jackass” slacker to an informed, engaged, citizen.
Newsweek: So are young people going to come out and vote this year?
Yago: Yeah–there are real issues this year affecting young people in indisputable ways: namely a bad job market, huge costs for college and war.
Anderson: I think people are going to vote this election as a mandate on the war. Even though I don’t honestly believe that there is a marked difference in how one party would have responded to 9/11 over the other.
Yago: It’s not just the 138,000 people overseas in Iraq either–it’s everyone who has done a tour of duty over the last two years, plus their brothers, sisters, girlfriends, friends …
Lazu: I do not see Kerry’s stance on the war as being so different to push people to vote. The reason people do not vote is because of basic voter education.
Anderson: Kerry’s stance isn’t that different, but frustrated youth will still feel that voting for Kerry will be the best way to say that they don’t like the war.
Yago: It’s not just the war though-the war is also a catalyst for discussion about what they fought for and the country they are coming home to.
Hill: The war speaks to whether they are willing to die for their country. This is a huge issue to vote around.
Lazu: Every time we see an increase in turn out it’s because of local politics and basic education.
Cendy Gonzalez, College Republicans: It has to start at the local level Hill: I agree that the local level is normally where we end up, but the issues of the day are at the national level. This election I see young people discussing national issues and that will drive the vote.
Lazu: Voting is not easy to do, we act like you can wake up one day and vote. People do not know where they vote, what is on the ballot or voter registration deadlines. Yago: Voting is not easy to do? WTF? You can register online! You can vote in a bathrobe and wife beater if you wanted to.
Lazu: You can’t register online. Stop spreading that rumor.
Yago: Sure you can… they send you the card registered to your district, you drop it in the mail and bam!
Lazu: You still have to mail it in.
Yago: They won’t send you a monogrammed invitation.
Gonzalez: You can have one of the 26,000 college Republicans register you. We’ll register anyone.
Lazu: There is no correlation between registering voters and voter turn out.
Hill: No correlation. To effectively register voters we simply need to take the time and get people to sign the forms. GOTV is more about working from 4am to 7pm on election day to make sure people get their asses to the polls and vote.
Anderson: I think part of the problem is polling. No offense, NEWSWEEK. I think people see the poll numbers and determine that it doesn’t matter whether they vote or not. After the last election, I would hope citizens would realize that every vote not just could, but does count.
Yago: Yeah but what about the Florida margin? I mean, how can you argue your vote doesn’t count when so few people determined the last election?
Anderson: Exactly.
Hill: The vote counts, but youth organizations have been more involved on voter registration campaigns and less engaged on the battlefield of voter turnout. Personally, I see it as more sophisticated and one of the biggest problems is that we need to get our people to stop worrying about going to work or to class and go to the polls and make sure their vote counts.
Yago: It’s funny–in many other countries, election day is a day off.
Anderson: A holiday does make sense. What could be a better way to truly celebrate our nation?
Lazu: We can’t have a holiday. We vote a lot: primaries, special elections….
Anderson: Yes, there are a lot of elections, and important local elections, but to have November 2 as a holiday as a holiday every four years could be a great first step.
Newsweek: Do people have to be fiercely partisan to care enough to vote?
Yago: Honestly, I think the majority of young people aren’t partisan. They’re independents and they vote on issues. A lot of their opinions might seem contradictory to the rank and file party line, so in that sense I don’t think partisan work gets people going. Issues do. But partisan money can bus their asses to the polling place the way issues can’t.
Gonzalez: The best way I know is the old fashioned way. Voter registration drives, door knocking, phone calls, whatever it takes.
Lazu: I have raised voter turn out in Boston six years in a row and we only knocked on doors once a year. It’s not rocket science
Gonzalez: I honestly think that the youth has a lot more reason to vote now than ever before. So many members of our military are under the age of 25 and they all have friends and family who care about what happens to them too. Not only that, but a lot of people have turned 18 since 9/11. Young people who go to college away from home want to feel safe again. They want to have a say in who the leader of this country is and what they plan to do to keep us safe.
Yago: Cendy, you make young people sound really weak and terrified.
Gonzalez: I don’t think so at all. I’m saying that the youth realizes we need strong leadership now more than ever and that we are going to make sure and vote for it. Anderson: To me, the best solution are great American History teachers in the 11th grade. It was beat into my brain the importance of voting, freedom, America, and that has carried me through many elections now.
Hill: As young people we do not know what the word “struggle” really means. We are just celebrating [the 50th anniversary of] Brown v. Board and it is important that to increase our turnout we develop a political agenda that identifies what “our” struggle really is.
Gonzalez: I think the struggle now is to shed this label of apathy.
Anderson: Yeah, I mean some young people in America still have a PS1 instead of an XBox. I don’t think most young people have a perspective of the world to let them realize how fortunate they are. When you travel to Africa or India you realize how blessed and unappreciate we often are.
Gonzalez: I don’t think its a bad thing for a population not to have to struggle like generations past. that’s why the older generations struggled….so we don’t have to.
Hill: It is not bad to not struggle, but the key outcome of people with a clear struggle is that the use of their vote is more important to them. As an organizer, my obligation is to get enough young people to the polls to ensure these candidates develop policies to address our issues. Whoever gets elected, my next obligation is to work with our youth to hold them accountable.
Yago: Politics is politics and you can’t ignore a constituency that proves itself vital.
Anderson: If we are tired of being marginalized, we need to show up, it will take several election cycles to see the real fruit though. Will young people have the patience to stick it out, or will they give up if there candidate doesn’t win the first time out?
Hill: Regardless of what issues each of us sees as important, I think we all strongly agree that we each have to get young voters to the November election. Otherwise we will have the same discussion four years from now.
Anderson: Voting is so much more than one election. It is about being engaged in the long run. And guess what? If you’re a registered voter, your representatives and even President works for you and will respond even after the election. Look at how George W. Bush responded to Bono’s DA-TA [Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa] movement. That was not a textbook Republican issue. But, Bush responded not to an Irish Rock star but to the voices of everyday Americans that said, “We care about our neighbors in Africa.” I think voting is so much bigger than an election because it empowers citizens as the employers of our democracy. We just need to make sure our employees show up to work and handle our resources well.
Gonzalez: We can make an election, we just need to start doing it more often. Look at Minnesota and Jesse Ventura that was fueled by young voters. Look at the recall in California. That was heavily fueled by young voters.
Yago: Final thought? Just that if you have a free minute this year and you’re reading this article take those 60 seconds to think about the future you want to inherit. You are capable, even if you don’t think so, of determining it.
