You don’t have to watch CNN for hours on end to know the election is two weeks away, even though that is not an uncommon occurrence for me. For those of us who spend the vast majority of our time on a college campus, it is apparent that the youth vote is more enthusiastic than ever. A few weeks ago, it seemed like I couldn’t walk for five minutes in any direction on campus without being asked if I was registered to vote. Now that registration is closed, the focus has shifted to chalking sidewalks and trying to increase exposure to this candidate or that issue and so on. As annoyed as I would sometimes be by these constant interruptions to my day, it was overshadowed by my excitement over the buzz of youth activism.
Early voting polls were setup on campus last week and the lines were around the corner. Great. The youth are finally going to the polls.
Let me complicate the situation with a story about my experience waiting in line to vote. Several of the local candidates were standing outside of the entrance to the polling place handing out literature and making last minute connections. The young man standing in front of me was looking through his stack of campaign literature in line and turned to me to ask if I knew anything about any of the candidates. I started to explain who they were and he interrupted me to say something along the lines of, “well, I’ll just vote democrat for all of these things, but it’s the big election that I haven’t decided on yet.”
Whoa, this guy was heading in to vote in less than five minutes and hadn’t decided between Obama and McCain? He proceeded to tell me that his Father was an Obama supporter and his Mother supported McCain, so they just weren’t going to vote. “I have an idea,” he said, as he pulled a coin from his pocket. If a flip of the coin showed heads, it would mean a vote for Obama and thus tails meant McCain. I crossed my theoretical fingers and watched with bated breath until I saw Lincoln’s beautiful head. If it had been his memorial that had been visible instead, I would have attempted the most rapid political intervention/lesson in history. The last thing that he said to me as he entered the poll was that he would vote for all democrats except for the county treasurer, you know, in order to keep a balance.
The scary thing is that this story is completely true. There has been such a push for an increase in youth voters that the educational aspect of it has fallen to the wayside. There are people all over campus asking if students are registered to vote. Once they have registered, they ask them if they have voted or are planning on it. No one is asking why they are voting or if they have thought critically about who and what they are voting for.
I am not sure who is to blame for this phenomenon. Is it parental influence? Many of the students of this millennial generation rely so heavily their parents for answers that it is not hard to believe that they would just cast a vote for a candidate because their mother or father supports them. Is it the fault of the educational system for not sufficiently educating the youth about the electoral system? Functionalists argue that the goal of the educational system is to teach students to be good citizens, and what is more valued as an American citizen than the right to vote? It could very well be the television media, whose pundits spin every issue around so much that you need to be a political scientist to decipher what they are really saying. If increasing voter registration and turnout is a goal that we want to invest in as a nation, there needs to be a system in place to assist those voters in educating themselves about the real issues.
I am not sure that the blame can be pointed in one particular direction. Is it better to have a large turnout of youth voters or a smaller contingency of informed voters? It’s a coin toss.
.
