Thanks for this column, Jamelle Bouie. I am regularly appalled by the slurs hurled at young Sanders fans over the low youth turnout. "Oh, they're too busy texting (or doing drugs or viewing porn on the Internet or . . .)." It's as though they don't KNOW any young people.
Stereotypes fill in voids where intelligence, curiosity, and judgment falter, and there always seems to be a meanspirited edge to them. I am retired, but I encountered interns in my profession every summer of my working life, and I now get them through a program that pairs organic farmers with young people who want to learn how to grow healthful food.
My impression is that mobility has a lot to do with the poor voter turnout. Young people move around a lot more--for education, for jobs--than people my age are willing to do anymore. But yes, civics education complete with voting booth simulations and a firm stand in politics against voter repression would help tremendously.
The Catch-22 in this is that I'm unclear whether curative measures will be taken until progressives take the helm. Our political establishment, both sides, is far less interested in civics ed and fairness. The status quo always benefits from the inertia of "we've always done it this way" thinking. It has little interest in making people more independent in their thinking.
73
But Lee Camp says that the exit polls, before they were "adjusted", showed that the official vote tallies were fraudulent. Jamelle I'd like you to watch this and give us your opinion. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t78Ff26-V8s
4
I think Bernie's problem is whereas young voters like his ideas they are also turned off by his constant lament that "everyone's against me". After 3 1/2 years of Trump they sick of this attitude.
7
I am sick of candidates who say, nominate me, because I will inspire people who already do note to vote, to get up off their lazy behinds and be responsible citizens. Bernie is failing miserably at this, as youth voting is down even from a low point 4 years ago.
3
“It’s not apathy, they just don’t follow through.”
What?!?
25
Yes. True, but I don't want to hear excuses. Young people failed. That's why Bernie won't be president. They let us all down. They decided to let fearful old people determine their futures for them. Pathetic.
13
The young never show up.
7
hogwash!!!!!
this column is just another set a excuses designed to spin the reality that young people find it inconvenient to actually take actions that involve actual effort.
texting and blogging are easy. getting a mail in ballot, or hades forbid, actually showing up to a polling place not so easy.
each person does a cost-benefit analysis on each and every action we take. they may not know that is what they did, but they did it and do it.
chosing between going shopping and voting? shopping wins every time no matter how easy voting is made.
so does hanging out with your friends, playing X-Box, making selfies for Instagram, heck going to the dentist polls higher than voting with young people.
you cannot claim that youth are both motivated and lack follow through. Truly motivated people follow through, everyone else is just a poser.
stop trying to spin Bernies losses. his message just does not appeal to the majority of the liberal and independent voters
notice who has been motivated and have followed through with real time action and personal effort...hint it is not the people demanding more free stuff.
19
Selfishness and commiseration.
2
OK, Youngsters.
15
They're too busy whinging about how awful things are to bother to do something about it.
11
"young people lack the confidence to vote"...oh please...they love Bernie, are not apathetic, just don't have confidence to pull a lever...Bouie is just making excuses for snowflakes and their general cluelessness...
13
Sorry, you are letting the little darlings off the hook way too easy.
Hard is standing in line to vote after full day of manual labor.
If you give a rats behind about your future you'd figure out a way to cast your ballot.
Freedom ain't free, guys and gals died for the you to have a vote, use it or lose it.
32
maybe the kids are too busy being an "instagram influencer", whatever the heck that means.
11
It should be pretty obvious. Why would you expect people who want something for nothing to lift a finger to get it?
11
I can’t believe you guys are so backward when it comes to democracy!
6
In 1914 young people went to war. In 1917 they started a revolution. In 1933 they brought Hitler to power. In 1945 they ended Hitler’s empire. In 1991 they crashed the Soviet bloc. This is politician engagement on a grand scale. And you are telling me it’s so hard to be a young person in America today that making it to a polling station is an insurmountable obstacle? Pardon me if my heart is not bleeding for you. I am in the 40 to 50 age group and I vote in every election - for my own interests, not that of pampered college kids. Do you want a class war? Well, it is a war and my side is winning.
14
Apathy is most certainly not the problem.
Care to think back on any previous youth movements. Social or political. Hippies and Hare Krisnaha's were among the least dangerous. But would Alan Ginsberg and Norman Mailer have made a good White House pairing? Probably not. Of course, there were worse. How about the Nazi Youth league, or Mao's inspired followers, all fired up and filled by enthusiasm. No. Let the Youth stay home in bed. Lazy and apathetic, as they should be, it's where they belong. Safer for everyone. When they grow-up and out of it, they can decide if they really want to try another experiment in toppling the established order. Donald T has provided more than sufficient excitement, but swapping the pan for the fire is not a good idea. It's time for Joe and the return of normal service. Or to quote the poet: The best lack all conviction, while the worst, are full of passionate intensity.
4
Do you hear yourselves? I voted every year since before fire.Lazy kids cant just work 12 hours a week as a soda jerk to pay for college ,books, board and a car.
I bought my first house for a quarter!
Good god you all sound like Biden.100% out of touch. Your generation ruined the habitability of the planet but you still want to preach to young people? You ran up five or six generations worth of dept that you just respect them to pay?
I hope when they take power they cut your Social Security off completely. They have grownup with war their entire life because of your cowardice to stand up to our corrupt government from both parties. Boomers did more to move humanity toward extinction than any generation in history.
6
These are a bunch of lame excuses for staying in bed and allowing the planet that they young will inherit burn.
90% of the job has always been showing up, and they haven't.
13
Overhead at a restaurant from the couple next to us, about her millennial son....
the mother filled out and mailed her son’s ballot for Sanders because she knows that who he likes, while she filled out of hers for Warren.
Pathetic that mommy still has to take care of an “adults” basic civic responsibility.
If you need your mommy or the government to make you vote, do us all a favor and don’t vote.
Stay home and be a SJW online.
13
The fact that young voters support Sanders doesn’t make him a better candidate. It makes him worse. In these pandemic times, how about revisiting Karel Capek’s play The White Disease published in 1937, just before the Nazis rolled into his native Czechoslovakia? In the play, a new plague kills everybody above the age of 40. The youth of Capek’s fictional country follow a populist demagogue and are eager to start a war. The doctor who invents a cure demands disarmament as a precondition for making it available. He is killed by a gang of youth who don’t care that their parents are going to die as long as they are free to follow their ideological Pied Piper. Nazism and Communism were youth movements. Young people are often radical, thoughtless, ignorant and prone to political extremism. Perhaps we are better off with them not voting.
6
Now we know when the young Bernie supporters say they won’t vote for Biden in November, they really mean it!
14
People went to prison, were beaten, had their homes blown up, died—just so we can vote. Women were not permitted until 100 years ago; my grandma (born 1901) and her sister never ever missed because it was such a struggle to get the vote. My immigrant ancestors weren’t allowed to vote in their homeland—and when they got here they never quit.
Yeah it’s tough when you have work or classes or kids. But people suffered so you can do this, so you must.
24
There was a time not so long ago when history and civics were required subjects in secondary school. Then they weren't. Too boring! Irrelevant!
Why should anyone be surprised at the consequences?
11
Voting rates among all categories of age cohorts have been falling since 1964, except for one: over 65. (https://www.census.gov/prod/2014pubs/p20-573.pdf) Mr. Bouie is probably correct in what he says about the absence of young voters at the polls, but the single most important one is the habitual nature of voting. Young people who don’t vote and never pick up the habit graduate to the next cohort, which explains why those rates of voting have been falling, too. At the upper end, though, there are plenty of reasons why voters over 65 go to the polls. As a society, we confer special economic advantages to older people, and those voters want to preserve them. And those cohorts have special interest groups like AARP to publicize the benefits and the political threats and mobilize their voters to act.
Youth voting spiked in 1992 and 2008, and it is hard to avoid the possibility that having a younger and seemingly more progressive candidate who could communicate effectively at the top of the ticket in those years had something to do with it. The spike in youth voting those years exceeded the changes in other cohorts. Primaries are one thing, but general elections generally bring out more voters, who may only be willing to do this once in a year. There must be some advice to Democrats here: find a candidate who can reach young voters, and youth voting rates may resolve themselves.
3
Lots of excuses in this article, but if the author bothered to look internationally he would have found that youth aren’t showing up anywhere, regardless of the voting system.
13
I am retired military. Voluntary service in Vietnam. Voluntary service in Desert Storm. My age is close to the three candidates. I am a MODERATE conservative ... perhaps a "Scoop Jackson" democrat.
My heart weeps at the 3 choices we have. They should all be ignored. I doubt I can force myself to pick any of these sorry jerks.
1
I am retired military. Voluntary service in Vietnam. Voluntary service in Desert Storm.s
Maybe I’m just getting old, but it drives me a little crazy to hear about how candidates have to be more exciting and voting needs to be made easier for young people to decide its worth it to drag their behinds to a polling place so that we can stop locking up kids in cages and maybe try and prevent the planet from incinerating.
That’s not civics— it’s basic human decency.
Get off of Twitter and all your Instant Graham’s, put down your phone and go vote. At the very least don’t blame Joe Biden for being too boring to vote for if you’re not going to wait on a line and fill out a dot on a piece of paper to elect Bernie.
It’s not rocket science. Stretch your wings and perform something way simpler than half the stuff you do every day on your phone.
P.S. I know it’s “Instagram.”
14
I would suggest that the missing youth vote for Sanders is due in part to the electronic age. Young folks are glued to their I Phones, their Twitter accounts, their Facebook feed and more. The next message just may be"the most important one in their young lives". Plus they are just plain lazy. It takes energy to get off you rear and go to the polls. You may have to wait in line or fear being embarrassed because you aren't sure you will understand ballot. We do a poor job of building confidence in young 1st time voters.
All these lazy factors are compounded diabolical republican attempts to suppress the vote by changing voter venues, sending out mixed and confused messages about how to vote, moving voting stations to places that are "off limits" to racial minorities and buy instilling fear in the black and Latina communities by sending ICE vehicles and personnel to cruise the Latins neighborhoods on voting days.
The fewer and the less informed the the young voters are, the better for the republicans.
3
Status quo is what the health insurance corporations want.
Status quo is what the pharmaceutical corporations want.
Status quo is what health care corporations want.
Status quo is what Amazon, Google and Facebook want.
Status quo is what many other big corporations want.
Status quo is what AIPAC wants.
Status quo is what Wall Street wants.
Status quo is not what the majority of the people need .... and collectively they have more power than all of the above combined.
4
I have never missed an election since my first vote almost 50 years ago.
I do it not because I am convinced that my vote will make a difference, but because of a sense of duty as a citizen of the United States.
Democracy can work only if a clear majority of people accept voting as a civic duty.
In his Inaugural Address in 1961, https://www.ushistory.org/documents/ask-not.htm, President Kennedy said:
“Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.”
My message to young Americans is to accept this duty, and to vote in November as if your life depends on it.
Because all our lives depend on all your votes!
16
Well written, Mr. Bouie.
It appears that Joe will get the party nod. The question then becomes, “will Bernie kneecap him over the asylum issue like he did Hillary in 2016?” Stay tuned...
8
the corporate dems & mainstream media shifted the bernie-biden choice from issues to electability.
all else has been subsumed by the need rid us of trump's species-ending madness.
bernie is 78, had a heart attack and is jewish. being jewish myself, i doubt this country is ready even now elect one. running against bernie, every other phrase from trump would be thinly disguised anti-semitism.
maybe in ten years we'll be ready to accept a jewish president (same for a gay guy). we've already elected a woman, she just wouldn't fight for it. we could do it again in the fall, and i'm not convinced we won't get the chance.
biden is also a geezer, but isn't jewish. he is a corporatist and convinced enough of the electorate that he could beat trump. i doubt it. liz could.
bernie's issues rightfully excited a young electorate. but as in 2016, the corporate dems have a stake in disenfranchising them in the primaries. then the republicans do it again in the fall.
I've-coauthored six books on that, dating from ohio 2004. it's tangible and very significant.
young people want free tuition, no student debt, medicare fall all, stopping nuke power, a green new deal, social justice...what makes long-term sense for human survival and a decent life.
bernie is Mentor to 85 million Millennials---and a good one! The sea change he sparked is coming despite our totally dysfunctional (by design) voting system. But will there be time?
1
Mr. Bouie: I believe you have factual errors in the fourth paragraph of your article. You say the "youngest voters have been staying home even as overall turnout skyrocketed". In fact, in most states, including North Carolina, young voter turnout in the 2020 primaries smashed previous records. (The same is true in Michigan, where I live.) However, the older voters also turned out in record numbers, and because there are more older voters, they outvoted the younger voters. The decline you are referring to is not a decline in the total numbers of young voters who turned out, but a decline in the ratio of young voters to older voters. This is not, as many have eagerly argued, a sign of millennial laziness, but the merely the result of the large population of baby boomers and Gen Xers compared to the number of people in the population who are under 30 and under 45.
54
What a lot of rubbish.
Since when is registering to vote an insurmountable obstacle?
Do young people have trouble registering to drive? Do they have trouble filling out a job application? Update their Facebook page? Video on Tic Toc?
Young people, like all of us find and make the time for the things we value and care about.
Voting clearly is one of those things for a good number. And that's a shame.
7
Now we know that when young Bernie supporters say they will not vote for Biden in November, they really mean it!
This article is absolute nonsense!
In 1984, as a college junior, I had no problem registering to vote. I voted in South Troy, New York even though I wasn’t from there. Somehow I manage to figure out where to register, where my polling place was, and how to get there on election day.
Then again, we didn’t have Starbucks, iPhones, and a million other “distractions” That apparently keep generation Z from having 1/100th of the civic mindedness that I had at the time
5
Every young person I know says that they don't vote because "it doesn't matter." They are entirely cynical about our government, and for very good reason. Our political system is a joke. Let's be real about this. But, of course, it is actually the highest-stakes game there is. Young people are just too dumb to put two and two together. Oh, look! A shiny thing...
2
OMG. “...there’s the simple fact that being young is difficult.” Try having a mortgage, still supporting those old enough to vote but don’t children, helping aged parents, providing for employees, serving clients, while trying to maintain a marriage. The difference is that the young people of the late 60s were literally staring down the barrel of a gun.
13
Why not just make voting day a national holiday?
3
What if they each get a trophy for voting?
8
When I think of the Black activists and their allies who lost or risked their lives to have the right to vote, the women who suffered jailing or worse to have the right to vote, the brave demonstrators in the Arab Spring, the voters in Afghanistan who risk being blown up or shot, I feel bad that here in the USA, people can disenfranchise themselves so cavalierly. Beyond that, I'm at a loss for words.
13
Even The Times systematically waves red flags about Sanders--just as they did in 2016--thereby indirectly supporting Trump.
It's partly his own fault; "Revolution" he says. But he does not aim at Constitutional change--that would be a revolution like 1776 overturning the monarchy. But the real revolution has been sneaking up for two centuries--the rise of Aristocracy/Oligarchs/Moneylords--updating the feudal Landlords/serfs overturning government FOR common people. Oligarchs aim to control both parties--thus Bloomberg as a Democrat. Biden too--though he is just their Éminence grise.
The Times paints Sanders as radical, extremist vs moderates like the rest of them--and they either know that "moderation" can mean "perfection" or they are stupid. In this contest it means conservative, beneficiaries of the status quo or their groupies..
Articles ridiculing medicate for all are the Times norm--as though Canada and Scandinavia are hotbeds of ignorant perversity. A one speech politician--one columnist writes--as if he's a one trick pony--ignoring his positions on a wide range of issues from foreign policy to education.
He is right to complain about media coverage; it's disgusting. And might get Trump re-elected.
2
And that’s why Republicans have been throwing one obstacle up after the other.
2
The article makes silly excuses why young American's don't vote. Yet they have no problem spending hours staring at small screens! Or deciding what is fashionable, what exotic coffee beverage to drink or what club/event to attend that evening. It is not hard to register to vote.
5
As a minority whose distant family members didn't have the right to vote. Whose family members were terrorized by Jim Crow. whose family members were lynched. Whose family members worked for lower wages than their white counterparts .
I really don't have a great deal of sympathy for young people who are watching their family members struggling in the new Trump world. Watching their parents rights being taken away, children in cages at the border, increase in student debt, and that they cant get out and vote.
The real world has issues and it is not a fair place. If you don't care about the real issues then stop complaining ,just live in the world of Trump delusion and watch America deteriorate
Prioritize and fight back the people who are keeping you from voting . Know and understand American history and get out and vote.
Vote blue and stop with the excuses, life is not a game and if you care about your fellow Americans you would be eager to vote. Yes ,voting should be easier but till it is get out and vote because all of our lives depend on it
12
I’m afraid this is a poor excuse of an article that attempts to sugarcoat sanders rejection by the voters, and furthers the times shameful disrespectful treatment of Biden. Shame on you on both counts
3
My 22 year old college educated and purportedly politically aware daughter is an enthusiastic “Bernie” supporter. On the Sunday before the California primary, she attended a rally featuring Dick van Dyke. She happily called me to say she will vote for “Bernie” on Tuesday. On Tuesday night she texted me and said she blew off voting because it was a hassle.
Ladies and gentlemen, behold a young “Bernie” supporter. No wonder he’s getting crushed in the primary.
15
A video in which a person goes through the voting process would be really helpful. It's unsettling to walk into a church basement and see a bunch of senior citizens sitting behind tables, scrutinizing voters lists. It's overwhelming to open a ballot to find choices you didn't prepare for.
If I could create such a video, I would. I hope creative and technologically competent people are thinking along the same lines.
43
@Susan Marie : The League of Women Voters makes ballots widely available in advance of every election, in hard copy and online. It isn't difficult to find a copy, along with information the League provides about the candidates for each office and any issues or questions up for a vote. Presumably young people understand the process of preparation - for tests and exams. What's so daunting about preparing to vote?
36
@Susan Marie Most people can learn to use youtube with only a cell phone. You could try. It might be a great thing to do.
There will be many many different ballots, so a video wouldn't work. There are city offices, county office, state offices, not to mention proposals in each of those places. If you look at Vote411.com, you can put in your address and find that information for your ballot.
I do this and then spend a lot of time researching the various candidates. You could form a group to do that and make it easier. Local and state races are also important. They affect your life directly.
Your voice/vote is louder at local levels. I've had a candidate I voted for win by single-digit numbers.
Voting intelligently is actually quite a bit of work. I figure if people fought and some died for the right to vote, it's the least I can do once or twice a year.
18
@Susan Marie Seriously? What do you think will happen in the church basement? Will the senior citizens turn out to be vampires and drag you off into a crypt? You really can't handle somebody asking you what address you live at?
45
As much as young people like the idea of pardoning student loans and getting free goodies that may not be enough to get young people to vote for Sanders.
The Sanders world view is distasteful to many and goes against the grain of American values.
Sanders comes across as an old fool closed book know it all
demagogue. He is pandering to the Antisemites on the left and to the naive pie in sky progressives. Sanders doesn't really care about America and young people are losing trust in him. They know he will never deliver and they realize he is nothing more then a blow hard in an empty suit.
2
Seriously?
Treating the youth vote as infantile rather thn juvenile is no excuse nor explanation for failing to turnout and vote.
About 45% of voting age Americans aka 100 million people didn't turnout and vote for President in 2016.
America lags way behind other democracies/ republics in voter participation regardless of age.
There is no American constitutional republic national right to vote.
In our divided limited different power constitutional republic of united states voting rights are largely defined and determined at the sovereign state level.
But for Amendments the formally enslaved and their heirs and women would have no opportunity to vote.
39
Avoidance is a psychologically motivated strategy. What drives it?
We learned in Civics class in elementary school in the 1960s that citizens have a right and a responsibility to vote. I have voted in every primary and every general election, local, state, and Federal, since I was old enough to vote. It’s my right and responsibility as a citizen.
5
Most of the education and persuasion depends on personal contact. The Sanders campaign had boots on the ground in California by last summer and managed to sweep the state. The next progressive needs to build on Sanders already growing base.
2
I've been political during 22 years of education in the law and policy. I even learned Logic and Semantics from United States Senator Hayakawa, a staunch conservative. Young men and women are interested in politics because they are learning about power, but more important, history. That is important for the future they believe, however, what is truly important to men and women 18-30 is having sex with each other, not voting for a very old and wearying man who promises the world but cannot deliver it. That much they vividly know about all politicians - They can like a candidate's style and taste in running complex societies, yet they also know what happens when septuagenarian takes the wheel, a crash.
Whoa there, I think many older Democratic voters, by not voting for Sanders, are being unfairly labeled as not justice-seeking, forward-looking or progressive enough.
Look up Sanders’ voting record over his Senate career on sites like Progressive Punch and Vote Smart. The methodology used is objective. You can dig deeper focusing on individual issues or crucial votes.
Considering the spectrum of issues, Warren, Gillibrand and Harris had higher progressive ratings than Sanders. Booker was right behind him. Sherrod Brown, who was higher than Sanders, should have ran.
Sanders is not some progressive giant towering over other Democrats.
7
This is spot on in terms of Republican voter suppression (it's egregious) and the difficulty of registering students to vote. But, I think it is a bit much to dismiss apathy. There is also the obvious issue of the "Bernie or Bust" mentality. The Democratic Party must do better communicate an overall agenda and drive home the point that you are voting for that, no matter who the candidate. Vote Blue!
5
A timely piece. I understand GOP-dominant states have legislated and installed more requirements and limits to voting in general for ordinary folks, at least in perception. Yet, I have to say it's unclear to me whether or not the primary/caucus intra-party (in this case, Democratic Party) voting prerequisites are the same, say, as hard or daunting, as those of the general election voting. Bouie didn't make distinct one from the other. So, I'm wondering whether the low youth turnouts in the 2020 Dem. primaries/caucuses so far have been due to the youth's doubts about their own preferred candidate or could just be attributed to the historical trend and youth's habit of lacking the "follow-through." I would say they are just too insecure and too smart (self-aware) to commit themselves to the losing side, although they have felt listened to and entertained continuously by the activist, Bernie Sanders.
1
I attended a large high school in Louisiana in the 1960’s. We voted for class officers on the same machines our parents would vote on in the regular elections. Because we were already familiar with the process, we were ready to vote and exercise our civic privilege and duty as soon as we were eligible. We could be doing this now, as part of training young people to be caring and community minded citizens. I haven’t missed a vote in 50 years.
3
Just a quick one: What if the "young ones" know something we don't? What if they understand that they are on a roller coaster (or has already left, that in the smoke, the ride controller guy can only see two bumps away and that voting means... methane producing cow manure.
I'm thinking they all know more than we do and that some kind of change needs to happen. Don't blame them for apathy.
1
At what point does anyone have the personal responsibility to act in a timely and ethical manner?
In this case, when do young people have the personal responsibility to turn up and vote?
There's always a reason not to do something if you don't hold yourself personally accountable for acting or not. Always. Almost always the 'reason" is a rationalization.
Young people who do not vote, like all people who choose not to do the responsible action, just want to be excused; eg, "it's not my fault."
Such people have a lot in common with Donald Trump.
7
In NYC public elementary school in the 1960s, my teachers always talked about the importance of voting, though never in any partisan sense.
I remember my parents always taking me into the voting booth with them, and I registered within days of of my 18th birthday in 1975. I've never missed an election or a primary.
I got off work early during the mayoral primary two seasons ago, and after voting, stopped next door for a beer.
I mentioned to the young bartender what I had just done. She had no idea what was going on. I told it was primary day to select the next mayoral candidate for the Democratic party.
She asked me who was the current mayor. I told her Bloomberg, and that he'd been in office for the past 12 years. She'd never heard of him.
At that point she told me that I shouldn't want someone like her voting. I suppose she's right.
8
If your demographic data bear out, it would be a great outcome for Progressives if the coronavirus were to rapidly cut a deadly swath across the senior demographic and reduce the Boomer Population by 5-10 million. I'm a Bernie Bro, and hope my entire failed Boomer Generation gets out of the way and lets the young fight for their own self-interest instead of the bloated, warmongering, polluting ways of my peer group. If it brings us a few months or years closer to Medicare for all, UBI and a progressive tax system that strips power and personhood from corporate oligarchs, I say let COVAD-19 take me and millions of my white-haired fellows to an early, ignominious grave.
1
@Steve Fortuna : In case you didn't read the article, the young don’t seem to be fighting for anything but great Instagram photos - not even for Bernie.
As to COVID-19’s wiping out the Boomer generation, thanks for volunteering yourself. I hope it’s not necessary, as much as I am confounded by when maligned by self-described Bros as a “bloated, warmongering, polluting” member of your peer group. After 55 years in the anti-war movement and striving to live responsibly, it’s genuinely tiresome to be described that way.
13
Sanders is showing how broken and cruel the healthcare system is. We could have used the simple cheap test kits the W.H.O. had offered but Trump waited until Big pharma could supply them at $1300 per kit. It's not a bug , its a feature. They want to rip you off for everything. Even a pandemic where we could see a million or more Americans die. They still want to gauge you before you keel over.
Obama and Biden enabled the healthcare industry to do this. Biden had his chance and failed miserably to rein In the greed of our system. They hold you hostage taking all of your money for your life.
5
@gene: The US is conned clean out of understanding their government to be a collective bargaining agent for the people.
1
@gene so don and the boys make a choice on how to do the test kits and it's Biden and Obama who are to blame for this decision...did i miss something?
4
Young American voters are still Americans. Nothing very, very bad can happen to their country. Why voting?
1
Wow, beyond the basic voter suppression those were some fantastic excuses for not voting!
5
Million of tweets, millions in marches are all outweighed by one old person gritting their teeth, waiting in line.
8
If so many young people (mainly white and privileged) are so enthralled with Bernie, who is nothing but very hot air, maybe the rest of us shouldn’t admire the young as much as we seem to.
5
Completely disagree. If registering and voting is too daunting a task how can we expect this group to dig in and work for solutions. This just perpetuates the notion that they are not willing to actually do anything beyond talking and using social media to complain. Voting gives you the permission to complain and advocate.
You can "OK Boomer" me all you want - just do it after you do your civic duty and vote.
7
I have never registered to vote in Canada; I don’t have to, because it’s done automatically. Moreover, there is a government agency, Elections Canada, that oversees federal elections.
In comparison, for me to register to vote in the US, as an expatriate, is a massive challenge. Structural barriers to voting suppress turnout. Americans talk about democracy and freedom, but, like so much talk, it’s just hot air.
8
As a high school civics teacher, we bring in the election officials to walk our students through the entire process. They register that day and go through mock elections. It is a great program, but unfortunately I doubt it drives more of our youth to the polls.
The major problems the youth I know have being able to vote is that they are registered at home and living away at college. The program we do at our school should actually be done for freshman at college orientation as well.
69
I am 64 years old. I registered to vote as soon as I was old enough and have made it a lifelong habit. However, I think it may have been easier for me than for some young people for several reasons. First, most adults in my family set a good example by voting. Second, my high school encouraged voting by bringing in real voting machines so students could familiarize themselves with the process and also get the idea that voting is a normal part of adult life. Third, I went to college in the same state I grew up in, so the adults in my family were able to tell me how to get an absentee ballot while I was at school. I have seen several comments on this article that make it clear that there are misconceptions about how to get absentee ballots and who qualifies for them. Absentee ballots are not the same as mail-in ballots; you have to check to see what the rules and procedures are for your state.
If we had a nationwide set of uniform rules about registration and voting, that would reduce confusion and make it a lot more difficult for individual states to disenfranchise minorities and students.
84
Well I’m 65, and had NONE of the advantages that you suggest made it easier to vote when you were young. But I managed anyway. We’ve got to stop making excuses for our young people. Yes we should make it easier to vote, of course. But this columnist is offering mere conjecture here. Where is the work that news paper writers at the level of the NYT are suppose to undertake. Where is the comparison of the youth vote in states that make voting easier compared to those draws that make it harder? That would require testing ones premise instead of just bloviating.
17
I object to the premise that asking citizens in their 20's and 30's to register to vote counts as an "arbitrary obstacle," or a form of voter suppression. Going through a similar process doesn't seem to prevent young people from getting a driver's license.
I think the lack of civics education - the subject of our rights and responsibilities as US citizens, and the role of governments - may explain why younger voters do not participate at the rates they could/should.
199
@Adam
Sorry, but this the dumbest article I’ve ever read. Young people don’t vote because they don’t want to. It ain’t that difficult. I am very worried that when they finally reach their productive years, they’ll be very unproductive. And we will all be in big trouble. I don’t believe a word of Bouie’s excuses. Hey, kids, don’t vote. Just Instagram. And let Biden tear out Trump’s throat. You’re not Democratic voters anyway so why even bother?
8
I'm fifty years old. I've voted in every presidential election since I was 18. Straight Democratic ticket. But I only became engaged in politics in 2015 when I found out that Bernie Sanders was running. I went to a rally. I started donating. I put up yard signs. I spoke with my family. Politics started to mean something to me. I had hope business as usual (endless wars, corporate lobbyists dictating policy) could finally change.
This climate crisis has also captured my attention. We've got to do something beyond individual actions like recycling, putting up rooftop solar and eating less meat. We have to engage on a political level and so that is what is driving my political engagement too. I've gone to some Fridays for Future strikes, donate monthly to 350 dot org and the Sunrise Movement, cut up my Chase credit card, and successfully campaigned to get backyard beekeeping and chicken-keeping legalized in my county.
So if I was 45 before I started really engaging with politics, then I can't really judge the young people who don't vote.
The climate crisis is going to get direr and with it, I believe more young ones will become engaged politically as they are the ones it will impact most.
76
The first time 18 year olds could vote in 1972 the rate of turnout was low and that was in the midst of a national draft and the Vietnam war. That was a real immediate threat to 18 year old men. I doubt the climate issue will generate any more action than social media posts. If you don’t vote you don’t count.
16
Well into our forties, both my wife and I despised declaring party affiliation in primaries. We would flip between party and non-partisan ballots because we grew up with a maxim that "no one needs to know my party." With age that's all changed. And though we never taught that maxim to our children, themselves now in their forties, I suspect they still avoid primary elections. Something for the political scientists to examine.
2
Uh how about some young people don't have a reliable form of transportation to get where they need to be? How about they (unlike retirees) have to work and go to school (or sometimes BOTH and with UNPREDICTABLE HOURS in an economy that does NOT provide PTO in most low paying jobs)?
The complete ignorance that is often displayed in the political reporting either has to be deliberate or it is a display of the incredible size of the blind spots that the pundits have.
If you want the younger generations to participate, don;t make it hard. Put it ONLINE like a dozen other countries do. The U.S. election system is ANCIENT. If huge financial institutions can protect TRILLIONS of dollars of transactions a day, the election system can be protected from harm. Hire someone who knows how to implement it. Not doing it and then blaming the victims is inexcusable.
4
Here is the least brilliant analysis: "“It’s not that young people are disengaged, it’s not that they don’t care about the issues at hand; it’s just that they really struggle to follow through,” said John Holbein, an assistant professor of public policy and education at the University of Virginia."
None of the reasons given works for me. Youth have always voted in low percentages, without regard to administrative hurdles, lack of confidence (really?), etc. Part of being young is wishful thinking, which means a lot of notions and not much motion. The apt word is "velleity," a wish or inclination not strong enough to lead to action.
2
Why do we have voter registration prior to voter voting? I would appreciate the NYT explaining the history and rationale for voter registration in the US. How does it compare to other countries? Thanks.
3
This is nice, but here is something else that can be done—put in enough polling stations near large campuses and other places so that people don’t have to wait several hours to vote. Because that happens and it is obviously a form of voter suppression.
4
Sanders' performance in 2020 makes it clear that a large number of his 2016 voters didn't so much support him as they disliked Hilary Clinton. The Democrats' failure to recognize this dynamic, coupled with her own tepid campaign, doomed her candidacy.
3
@Lee
Now sit back and watch the same thing happen to Biden in 2020. The only thing that can save him is the Coronavirus and a subsequent recession. It's sad that we have to hope for terrible things to happen so our half-baked candidate can win.
3
I remember all the efforts that were made to stop me and my fellow students from voting back when I was a university student living away from home, and from what I have seen in the news, those efforts have intensified over the years.
Add to that the split loyalties facing many boarding students... as somewhat temporary residents, many want to vote where they grew up... and absentee voting requires planning beyond the means of many adults, never mind the newly minted adults in universities.
I am baffled, however at all the older voters who support Biden, a man who has attempted to cut social security and medicare over and over.
Ironically, older voters would be better off if young people managed to vote in larger numbers.
4
@Objectively Subjective: Most young people I have talked with lately don't expect Social Security to survive to their own retirement age, notwithstanding the fact that its pension fund is the whole US economy.
The United States Federal government is the wealthiest corporation in the world, and we the people are its shareholders.
1
@Steve Bolger ACTUALLY, the Vatican Bank, with over $34 trillion in art, gems, land and gold, is the richest corporation in the world. Lots of cash in hawking that Jesus guy.....and tax exemption, to boot!
2
If the Democratic Party wants young people (and independents) to turn out for them in the fall, they should nominate a candidate that young people (and independents) want to vote for. Republicans will vote for the Republican, no matter how many of your values you give away. They will call your candidate a socialist, no matter who that candidate is.
The primaries measure who Democratic Party loyalists want. Young people are too young to be loyalists. (Independents are inherently not loyal to Democrats. Sanders has an advantage with independents BECAUSE he is an INDEPENDENT, "not a real Democrat.")
There are not enough Democratic loyalists to beat Trump. It is the responsibility of the party to have a candidate that other people want to vote for. Do you really want to spend the next four years complaining that young people and independents didn't vote for your "safe" candidate again?
If not, vote in the primaries for the candidate that young people and independents will turnout to vote for IN NOVEMBER.
Get young people to vote in the fall, so they will be loyal to Democrats in the future.
2
@McGloin
Everything you said is wrong, as evidenced by the voting results. Biden has a broad coalition whereas Sanders does not. Biden has spurred voter turnout whereas Sanders has not. Biden has increased his share of votes while Sanders has contracted. Despite progressive propaganda, the youth vote is not what will deliver the presidency in the next election.
8
@John
You completely ignored everything this person said about who votes in primaries. They're right about that.
Biden's "broad" coalition is over the age of 50 and doesn't include latinos. This is going to be a very close election in November. You might not think the youth vote is big enough to matter, but you'll find out differently if you want to keep dismissing and rejecting it. Not smart politics.
1
I'm old (49) but have voted since I was 18 mostly because my parents voted and took me to vote with them since I was in elementary school. My wife and I are doing the same for our kid, who's nine. Does he care now? Not really. Will it sink in over the next 10 years. Definitely. That habit-forming theory is definitely true for voting and anything else you do in life.
On the other hand, the idea that young people get discouraged by obstacles is nonsense. If that was true there would be no Burning Man, no blowout sales of limited edition Nikes, no lines for the new iphones (when that was a thing), no kids getting high or drunk under 21.
When young people want to do something, they do it. While a minority of them do care about voting, most just don't. If they did, none of the road blocks you mentioned would stop them.
10
It's also the case that older voters have more of sense of urgency and practicality. We are terrified of reliving 1972.
6
This made me reflect back to when I graduated high school in 1979. There were a lot of great classes and teachers who taught me how to learn through their specific subject matter and rigor. I’ll often joke though that the most important class I took was typing! Now, I’m going to add my civics class to the list. By the time 1980 came around I registered and voted because that’s what I was supposed to do.
9
@Jonathan Sanders
Same year. We all had a civics class at my northern California high school. Have they all been eliminated?
2
So before the Republicans endangered everyone’s lives by gutting the CDC, before they eviscerated the EPA, and before they took $1.5 trillion dollars from regular folks, they made sure to make sure that it would be difficult to vote for someone who would do something else.
4
Maybe it's misunderstanding amongst young voters that demonstrating your support for Sanders on social media doesn't actually accomplish anything?
BTW (referring to roadblocks to voting), here in Michigan we have permanent absentee balloting for all, so you don't even have to leave the house to vote.
12
Voting is power, hence all the efforts to suppress the vote by violence as we saw in the sixties or legislation. By not voting, the younger generation is giving up their power to those of us who vote in every primary and general election. If they are not happy with the results, they need to vote in much larger numbers. Rallies, etc. are fine, but the changes they want won't come about by just electing a president but by getting a veto proof Senate and state governors and legislators who support those changes. We need their help.
7
Voter Registration is not an administrative obstacle if someone is actually serious about voting. The idea that young people, who are more tech savvy than any generation in history, can't figure out how to register to vote is utter nonsense.
I do not believe in making it harder to vote than it needs to be. But voting is, hopefully, an expression of one's "hand" on our social and political steering wheel, and it seems to me that asking people to step through a few hoops to be able to vote isn't undemocratic. It demonstrates their commitment to being a part of our democracy.
Progressives may yet have their day, perhaps as soon as 4 years from now. But the reality is that talk about the revolution has far outpaced the actual implementation of that revolution. In addition, while idealism is synonymous with youth, so too is the idiom that we tend to get more conservative as we age. So only time will tell if there's a real revolution coming, but for now, the people have voted and they have rejected radical change.
13
Fact of the matter is, American youth like to make a lot of noise, demand their voices be heard,then when its time to show-up, they don't. Historically. That's the trend.
And currently, the means for the younger tribes to make a lot of noise - social media - get a lot of use. But when its time to get up and go out and do something "hard"...they bail.
College students manage to learn how to navigate all the arcana of college registrations, and such...but figuring how to register and then go vote stumps them? They can navigate the wacky world of phone Apps, follow the accounts of a few dozen celebrities and know what they had for lunch, and how to get from point A to M, then Z via various forms of Gig transportation...but voting is really, really hard, near impossible?
The youth always want to be heard, but that seems to be about all they want sometimes...to make the noise, be recognized as the noise makers, but not to make their noise manifest.
Maybe that's the way its supposed to be? Maybe that's the point of being a real grown-up...knowing when all you're doing is making noise, and finally discerning how to not just make noise, but then get things done.
Maybe the youth vote is not a real thing, but more the stuff of hopes and dreams of candidates like Sanders. Maybe the youth vote is just a construct of the Political Professional Class. Something they have constructed to distract their candidates and the public.
Maybe the Youth Vote ain't a real thing...?
10
@Boregard : Meanwhile, I read in today’s Times that young voters are demanding concessions from Joe Biden in return for their support. I’m confused. What “support” are they - as a voting bloc - offering? Mentions in their Instagram feeds? That’s worthless. If they aren’t showing up at the polls they have nothing to trade.
15
@Olenska
Do you feel the same way about minorities who aren't voting. Or anyone else?
1
When I was a senior in high school, the school invited officials to the school to help register the students who had passed their 18th birthday. When I went to school out of state the next year, I voted by absentee ballot, which included getting a university official to notarize my vote.
I thought the purpose of "voter registration" was to keep people from voting multiple times. Why does the writer call this an "arbitrary obstacle"? What puzzles me is the idea of registering "as a Republican" or "as a Democrat". I don't remember specifying a party 40 years ago and I certainly don't feel bound by it now
4
They can't vote with their phones and schlepping to the polls is a pain.
5
There are a just a lot more casual observers with moderate views who show up to vote than there are actively involved progressives.
3
Those Progressives aren't too "active" if they can't bother to do the bare minimum, which is vote.
2
The problem is that young people are used to adults constantly making excuses for them. Nothing is ever their fault. Anyone who has worked in education in the last 30 years can tell you this.
When are we going to admit that some members of our society are responsible for their own problems?
No one over 18 has more time in the world than college students and young adults do. Most of these kids have no problem figuring out their phones, keeping track of their social media, or standing in long lines for concerts and clubs or finding the money for the things they care about.
But voting is just too hard?
Give me a break.
13
In other groups such as the black vote voter turn out has improved because the groups to which they belong such as churches help them do it, provide group support and incentives. Youth as fixated on their computers, lack this support, their community is on line and is some what out of touch with the actual things happening around them. voting to them may seem an abstract excersize. They are just finding their way in society.
Voting should be as compulsory as breathing for everyone with automatic registration when getting a driver's license.. Perhaps Google, Twitter and Facebook should mount an advertising campaign centered on the youth with full page ads when Logging in. HAVE YOU VOTED TODAY
3
The parliamentary system works better because several political parties with very distinctive platforms and objectives can coexist in a climate where voters choose which party to support, and parties nominate their own candidates by their own processes to run in every "riding" or district.
2
Only a minority of young people are very motivated to vote- and they tend to have more extreme positions. Most are very left while fewer are right wing extremists. Of course there are moderates as well. It’s a bit like the difference between primaries and caucuses; far fewer show for caucuses than for primaries but they are more extreme... and we should get rid of caucuses.
6
I'd like to recommend a couple of websites that make it easy for people to register and vote for the first time. https://www.vote411.org will help take you through the steps to register. It will also print out a sample ballot for your national, state, local races so you can see it in advance.
https://www.vote.org will take a person through it as well. They also have a page for absentee voting that makes it easy. Though not all states do this, and the regulations will vary, it's a great way to avoid lines. Or to vote if you are traveling or at college, etc.
It would be helpful to see a whole column on ways to help young people to vote.
44
@Kathleen registering is less of an issue than actually showing up at the polls.
3
@Kathleen: I find it outrageous that voting in federal elections differs from state to state. This is not equal protection of law.
5
Voting is difficult for those of us over 70, also. Add to the usual reasons for difficulty in voting and add frailty, health, etc. And what about black people? They are constantly disenfranchised in so many ways. And yet the elderly and black people vote in large numbers. They don't know where their polling places are? Look it up on your cell phone! Have trouble getting there? Take Uber! Your excuses for young people do not pass muster. And it seems to me they are almost made up as another excuse as to why Sanders isn't doing well. The majority of Democrats simply do not want him as President.
11
Would be interested to see what the youth vote looked like when Obama ran. Was it higher the now?
2
Well, they tend to be fairly liberal and open minded, just the opposite of the democratic party. They are a minority and they always will be. It is what liberals, real liberals, from every generation have faced. It will not change and so supporting the democrats is still voting against ones own self interest.
Watch as democrats once again agree to help the wealthy and give only a kind of lip service level of support to working people and young people during this virus epidemic. Democrats should understand, you can only pull the old bait and switch so many times. eventually people who really are liberals will catch on.
These youngsters don't have the same lead lamed brains that people born before 1975 do. They will not fall in line like the old democrats.
I suspect the democrats are toast, precisely because they hate liberals. I'll grant that they will likely win the presidency this time, but their choice will flounder as they usually do.
1
Kids, know why Seniors still have Medicare AND Social Security despite DECADES of the GOP attempts to kill both Programs ???
Because Seniors VOTE. Every single time. Sure, A rally, march, town meeting and supporting your Candidate online are great. But it means absolutely nothing, if you can’t be bothered to actually VOTE.
Just saying.
6
Thank you for pointing out that getting younger eligible citizens to vote is difficult. It seems as if this country doesn't want every person who can vote to vote. In a national election it's important that as many as can vote do vote. After all, all of us have a stake in having a well run government in place.
Registering to vote and voting ought to be simpler. We don't have large numbers of illegal voters despite loud claims that there are. Most illegal immigrants don't want the attention and won't try to register or vote. We don't let convicted felons vote in most states. But we do try very hard to keep African Americans, Latino(a)s, and newly naturalized citizens from voting for some reason.
3/13/2020 8:43pm first submit
2
Vote by mail should be made into law as a requirement for all states to provide.
4
I looked into the argument (regarded as truth) that YOUTH voter turnout for Bernie in these primaries has been LESS than in 2016. It seems this is simply untrue! In fact, youth have been voting in HIGHER numbers compared to 2016, just not as much (or as high) as the older age-classes have. Also, the fractions of older age-classes (that make up "baby boomers") in the population are higher now than in 2016, giving the ILLUSION that youth voter turnout is less this time. The shares of the electorate of younger age-classes now have gone down from their 2016 fractions and, especially, compared to the politically-engaged age-classes of the baby boom. (Beware of misleading, mainstream media data that are based on GENERATIONAL trends rather than age-class trends, because each generation does NOT correspond to the same length of time, i.e. boomers occur over 18 years, whereas Generation Z involve just 5 years.)
Furthermore, since Democratic party affiliation and voting in general is lower among the youth compared to older age-classes, data from closed and semi-closed primaries ESPECIALLY under-represent the likely participation of youth in the 2020 general election (the whole point).
https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/essay/an-early-look-at-the-2020-electorate/
https://vtdigger.org/2020/03/06/politifact-a-closer-look-at-turnout-young-voters-and-a-key-bernie-sanders-strategy/
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1l5fpK7ysQhQbZPv9hnZ_-PO1J1zBVPXSSQjNejTXecY/edit#gid=1189109697
4
I don’t buy the argument that young people don’t vote because “the first time is daunting”. That’s nonsense. Everyone has voted “for the first time” at some point in their life and have managed to do it regardless. It’s apathy, laziness and lack of concern, despite their protests otherwise. I see it everywhere. People, especially young people “can’t be concerned” to vote. It’s inconvenient. Pathetic. If (young) people were really concerned, they would vote - plain and simple. Yes, their are obstacles to voting in certain circumstances (especially in certain segments of society caused by certain sectors of government), but many people go to great lengths to exercise their right to vote.
5
My parents live in Florida and vote every time by mail, as it is allowed there.why is it that older voters, my parents are in their 80s, are able to do so, but people in their 20s are not. Bouie claims voter suppression. Nonsense. He is simply making a false excuse.
5
Is it possible to make young people look good in their own eyes — and on Instagram — when they register to vote and, then again, when they show up to vote? Can we do something that makes it officially cool to vote? Should the Democratic Party (with bundles of cash from Mike Bloomberg) create a reality television show? Should progressives in Hollywood produce reality television like “the bachelor” (and maybe call it “hot young voter”)? Is national recognition enough incentive to register you and your friends and bring them out to vote in a serious competition for attention?
1
@Lee Eils - Hasn’t this society, especially the upper classes, infantilized young people enough? First, anything older people think is “cool” will probably be spurned by young people. No one enticed previous generations to vote. For me, since I’m aghast at how readily many of the young seem to fall for Bernie’s hype without questioning if he can achieve what he promises, I’m happy they seem to think of his rallies as some kind of rock star event but then they go home and sleep it off and don’t bother to vote for someone who hates the Democratic Party. Meanwhile, we moderates will probably get Biden and his excellent cabinet.
2
@Lee Eils : Oh, for heaven’s sake. A voting reality TV show?!?! If they can’t understand that participation in a democratic process is worth it for its own sake, and they need to be entertained to make them vote, maybe they’re too dimwitted to be allowed to.
5
I was not one to recognize it. A Jewish kid from NY where women were not marginalized, married to a Jewish woman who I loved, respected and supported. I just did not grasp the depth of misogyny out there. I worked where there were women as equals, sometimes supervisors, sometimes managers, sometimes black, sometimes white. Women were just other people. The only thing the girls didn’t do as well as the guys was play on the softball team.
I was a strong Hillary supporter, and Warren was my pick.
I now recognize the depth of misogyny out there, and that it must be eradicated. I don’t know how.
But Joe must pick a woman who can, and should, walk in to the presidency when the time comes. Hopefully, it will be someone measurably younger than he.
2
@Bailey T. Dog
People have got to get over this belief that the only reason a woman can ever lose anything is because of misogyny. Do you understand how hard it is to become president?
We started this campaign with over 20 candidates. It's possible that none of them will be president. You're not going to get a woman president by shaming and bullying people into it. It will happen when the right candidate steps up at the right time. That's how this always works. There aren't different rules for women.
3
"there’s the simple fact that being young is difficult" is possibly the most inane statement I've ever seen in an NYT opinion piece (aside from those by right-wing loonies).
Every age level has its difficulties and challenges. If you read and listen to commentary from young "Bernie Bros", you will find a more likely explanation for many of their number being "missing": A lot of them feel very sorry for themselves, believe that older people have totally destroyed the world, and think that it's everybody's job but theirs to make things better.
I think it would be just fine if self-centered people like that stayed "missing".
10
They've been brain washed into believing anything Trump is for they should be against. Trump is against the endless war and and expansion of our military influence in Ukraine. Youth must be scratching their heads when Democratic hopefuls and mainstream press say it's our patriotic duty to defend Ukraine. Patriotism is archaic isn't it.
When we was in my teens we were told by people over thirty don't trust anyone over thirty. It's youth vs older people again. Bernie is a Boomer. Boomer bad. They destroyed the planet. How do they vote for a boomer? Medical insurance is not always the highest priority for twenty year olds. Any youth out resentful they have to pay for old people?
Maybe they're smart enough to the controversies created in the media are fake and they really don't have much input on what affects their lives. Maybe they're like their Boomer parents and figured out they can't buy things when it's going to taxes and to guilty to pull the lever.
Thank you for pointing out that getting younger eligible citizens to vote is difficult. It seems as if this country doesn't want every person who can vote to vote. In a national election it's important that as many as can vote do vote. After all, all of us have a stake in having a well run government in place.
Registering to vote and voting ought to be simpler. We don't have large numbers of illegal voters despite loud claims that there are. Most illegal immigrants don't want the attention and won't try to register or vote. We don't let convicted felons vote in most states. But we do try very hard to keep African Americans, Latino(a)s, and newly naturalized citizens from voting for some reason.
3/13/2020 8:43pm first submit
9:33pm second submit
2
Young people can't turnout to vote if they don't EXIST. This article is just terrible..... There is a reason, after all, it's called the "baby boom". Despite progressively increasing morality, age-classes of the baby boom are LARGER than are the youngest age-classes (of voting age). If you restict it to registered voters, i.e. share of the electorate, this difference is huge. In truth, Bernie does incredibly well with young voters (of ALL kinds). The fact that they followed a boom in fertility is not really their fault. And the fact that the our youth have never been proficient voters (especially compared to retirees who have a little time on their hands) is certainly no fault of Bernie Sanders. But this is NOT how the narrative is spun in this paper and the rest of mainstream media. A demographic artifact and a general feature of our youth are FALSELY used as grounds to question Bernie's electability (despite all the poll data) - and for the general election no less! In such terrible times as these, a safe bet is what we need..... So many readers here have been played like fools.
2
Maybe they're just uncomfortable voting against their parents wishes.
1
All these oldsters (of which I am one) pontificating at the lapses of the younger generations. So righteous and high-minded compared to the cellphone-toting ignorant apathetic young too lazy to vote. While I see photo after photo of young people waiting ifor up to five hours to vote in severely limited polling places. What's the real picture?
2
They proudly say how they aren't registered. Whatever, Boomers own you.
1
The task at hand is for Bernie to convince Biden supporters that they're backing the wrong guy. Don't be fooled by the recent lull in activity. Bernie has been "Biden his time," and the showdown at the DC corral happens Sunday night.
Two men--will they be standing at lecterns or relaxing in armchairs?--alone, mano-a-mano, in front of a massive national audience that won't have any other blood sport to watch this weekend. Bernie's objective, although he may be too nice of a guy to do it, will be to expose Biden's lack of a coherent strategy for moving the nation forward.
The moderators' job will be to coax an explanation out of Bernie about his socialist views, and an explanation of Ukraine, Burisma and Hunter Biden's involvement in the whole smarmy mess out of Joe.
If Biden isn't reduced to a mumbling mass of malediction over the course of what is shaping up to be a grueling 2 hour steel cage match, then he probably deserves the nomination. But my money's on Bernie.
2
"They don’t think they know enough..."
Really? Has that been your experience with young people?
3
Maybe the few young people who were organized enough to vote for Sanders can try their hand at emigrating to a social-democratic country. Seriously, if you’re young, why waste your time and money on a country that will not provide debt-free education, universal healthcare, and parental leave? You can easily move to Canada or Europe or Australia once the corona crisis dies down, and still cast your vote from abraod.
@mbsq - Is it really so easy to emigrate to Canada or any Scandinavian country and become a citizen? I doubt it. Those countries, while far better in many ways than the States, are not nearly as open to those of other countries as we are, even now in the time of Trump. If it were so easy, maybe many of us of all generations would flee this country.
If you follow up the free press, from the FOX News Network to the NYT, it’s easy to notice to colossal amount of pure hatred and animosity directed at our first neighbors.
What is supposed to control and eradicate hate?
The faith; nothing else but the faith.
The current conditions indicate the stunning lack of faith in the human society. Every time our hatred increases above the certain limit, the human society ends up in a tragic war.
We have several millenniums of written human history do prove this conclusion.
Jesus famously said love the sinners, hate the sin.
So instead of hating Trump, Obama, McConnel, Pelosi, Biden, Pence, the Republicans or the Democrats, hate the sin.
What all of them stand for?
The capitalism!
The endless wars in Afghanistan and Iraq or slashing the fundnig for the CDC at the dawn of coronavirus pandemics have the same root in common.
The wars overseas are allegedly waged to protect our national interests, but we had no interests or the Americans in Iraq. The capital had many. The funds for the CDC were slashed to protect the capital and enable reduction of the taxes. The national infrastructure deteriorated so the capital could be preserved, wasn’t it? The health care was denied to the people so the capital could grow…
When the bloody wars break out, what is destroyed? Both the human lives and the accumulated capital…
Subdue greed to protect the people!
All of these computers in schools and young people don’t know how to vote? Yea, that makes sense.
Sorry, socialism just isn’t popular.
3
There was a time when history and civics were required subjects in high school. Then they weren't. Irrelevant and boring!
Why would anyone be surprised by the consequences?
3
Anyone who won't turn out to vote doesn't care. It's that simple.
84
@John D.
Young People are young. They aren't sure what is important in life, and they aren't sure how to accomplish the things they think are important.
Older people that want Democrats to win in the future should be TRYING to get these young people voting for Democrats, because then they will be more likely to vote for Democrats in the future.
You don't get young people to vote by complaining after the election that they didn't vote or voted for the wrong candidate. You get young people to vote by explaining the process, helping them register, and giving them a candidate that they, and their peers, are excited about.
You also have to realize that many people who vote in general elections don't vote in primaries. For many people primaries pass before they realized they missed anything.
The Democratic Party keeps attacking the idealistic values of young people, the policies that would promote those values, and the candidates that argue for them. The Democratic Party has alienated generation after generation of young people by attacking everything they believe in as "childish" "pie in the sky," then after the election, blame them for the loss. This is not wisdom. This is shooting your party in the foot by treating it as a private club: a "big tent" with big bouncers at the door.
Occupy was full of people that cared, so Democrats insulted us.
If you want to actually beat Trump, we need huge turnout in the fall. Stop attacking the young, their ideals, and their candidates.
14
@John D. I agree, if you don't vote than you don't have a right to complain, be a part of the solution not the problem.
9
@John D.: Having one's vote chronically discarded by the Electoral College only inspires contempt for this pseudo-democracy.
9
There’s something else - the physical disengagement encouraged by social media. It does require an effort to study a ballot, candidate, request a ballot or get to the polls. For so many of the very active young online Bernie followers it didn’t seem necessary to actually go out and vote for their man. Mean tweets sufficed. Schools are the place to teach civic responsibilities, as well as illuminating the insidious dark art of media messaging. We’re quick to judge an elderly generation of FOX News viewers for allowing themselves to be manipulated into voting against their interests by a malevolent billionaire. But younger voters are being equally manipulated, into cynicism, apathy and isolation.
3
I was a senior in college and Johnson was President when I turned 21. I was studying for exams and it was easier to get a drink at a bar than register to vote. I finally registered later that summer after I became a married woman. I had to go to register at the County courthouse with a driver's license, birth certificate and utility bills. I've missed a couple of presidential elections as my job took me out of the country and absentee ballots were another hurdle. I still prefer to vote in person on election day.
1
Let's not forget that while turnout is low among the young, it's also low (just a little less low) among older groups.
A lot of Americans just don't believe voting makes any difference at all. And, for the most part, they are actually right. Unless you are voting in a closely contested race, a single vote has no impact at all on outcomes. And if you don't much like any of the candidates anyway, the outcome probably doesn't matter either.
I am someone who votes in nearly every election and believe it's critically important to do so. But if I am honest with myself I have to admit that there have been very few elections in my life where my vote made any difference at all.
1
People in this age group tend to be itinerant, moving from one place to another, one state to another, fairly frequently. One cannot vote at all if one isn't registered to some residence, and every change of address requires a visitation to a clerk's office to re-register.
2
You make an awful lot of excuses for young voters participation rates. Having been a HS teacher for over thirty years, there are some basic truisms about people aged 16-28, and one of the biggest is self-absorption. I don’t offer this is as a wholly negative observation, though. Their worlds are MUCH narrower than they will be when they are older. They will have dramatically more responsibility when they are married, have children, mortgages and car notes to pay, etc. their horizons broaden and, correspondingly, that will include connecting to the broader public square, including politics. How else to explain the fact that young people have never had more access to information about the world and have never known less...at least in terms of what they could know. Finally, add to this the fact that parenting so coddles, structures and protects young adults that they tend to be swaddled in their narrower orbits all the more. If we had a military draft, EVERYTHING above would be different.
5
The problem for Mr. Bouie, Progressives in general, is the chimerical hope of their youth strategy. I'm all for getting out the vote, but the Progressives' problem is not simply a lack of a youth surge; it's that youth have a pesky habit of growing older and seeing greater complexity as experience accumulates. This is not to dismiss the concerns Progressive candidates, because I mostly agree with their critique, but Progressive solutions aren't compelling to people over 35. The rhetoric of revolution is an immature doctrine, especially when most Americans are concerned about the frayed condition of governance, and mind you that was before the coronavirus. Nor can Progressives complain about not getting their chance to be heard. They made a full-throated defense of their positions this election, enjoying front-page coverage and immense support among NYT columnists for more than a year. They even got to lead for a few weeks, but once the primaries shifted from problematic caucuses to far more diverse voting booths, Progressives lost. Sanders is going down even in Washington State, which was teed up as a runaway win less than a month before the primary. Their problem is not the critique, nor the chimerical youth surge: it's their program and candidates. Sanders is not likable and Warren is less likable than true believers realize, but the hazy "for-all" platforms sans realistic strategies to pay for them, including finding votes in Congress, is their undoing.
5
It is no surprise that young people are "staying home" as you phrase it.
Actually, my twins are 22 years old and in college. They are both taking full schedules, working for the University 20 hours per week, and, each have another job on top of school, plus work study.
So, my kids just did not have time to vote. Also, my kids are skeptical of Bernie Sanders Free Ice Cream platform.
They figure he is the equivalent of a 5th grader running for class President. FREE ICE CREAM for everyone!! Vote for ME!
But, they know how that story ends. They were once in fifth grade.
So, they did not vote.
3
@Michael
Comparing life-saving medical treatment that won't bankrupt your family to ice cream is outrageous. Grow a heart.
1
Well, this piece did nothing to convince me that apathy is still not at the very core of the low youth turnout. All the obstacles raised - some very serious, but some easily fixed - are treated with apathy, or a lack of minor effort (and laziness is a pillar of apathy) on the part of the young voters.
How hard is registering to vote, when you have to register for classes, and get a damn driver's license!? Wont see many teens etc, fail to get their permit. Or get on line for free food at an event, or to get some dopey give-aways at a festival, or sporting events.
When I voted in 1979, at 19 (and also registered for the reinstated selective service) I wasn't wise in the ways of politics - national or local. I voted with my dad and voted as he did. Thereafter I voted as I saw fit...but I always voted! You dont need to know everything and every candidate on the ballots to simply vote and then vote again. Hell, most older American voters are not that well-informed, as survey after survey for decades now have shown. There is ample data that ballot initiatives are misunderstood (made that way on purpose in many cases) by the general public, but people vote on them anyway!
There's a serious myth being promulgated about access and the difficulty to vote. Yes, in some places access is limited, lines can get long...but those are the exceptions! Most Americans vote with relative ease. Meaning younger voters can too!
But they don't. At the core its still apathy!
4
Agreed, this article didn’t really offer much.
I just received the U.S. Census document advising me "by law you must respond by April 15th". The nice thing about it is the document also gives you a personal password and you can do the whole thing on line in about 10 minutes.
Why not the same for Presidential elections. Eliminate the polling places & voting booths and hours standing in line and just do it from your home computer?
Yeah, sure I know there will always be hackers and voter fraud but that's a fact of life in this millennium and why we have Federal law enforcement agencies.
34
@JSS
Actually -- nail on head. Our last election in Canada (national) was on paper ballot... to prevent hacking. On the other hand, there were roaming voting stations (hospitals, nursing home, etc.)
So, access to voting is key and e-vote is not it: opening locations, not legislating the hours away, site restrictions, etc. More is better.
7
@JSS There are also encryption and verification systems that could be used: https://www.quantamagazine.org/rsa-cryptographer-ronald-rivest-seeks-secure-elections-20200312/
I think Mr. Bouie is correct. I have a few things to add that I have seen. Registering to vote is easy online and voting is easy in small towns but what about large areas where it might be hard to get to the polls and uncomfortable. When young people show up they are questioned by senior citizens who look at them like they are gang members. That does not make for a good experience.
Furthermore, the voting process is old-fashioned. We have the choice in my community of voting on paper with pencil or using a computer that takes the paper ballot and fills in the ovals for you. There should be a simple way to register on your phone and vote from your phone the same day. That would drastically improve voter participation. Young people are used to that type of efficiency.
Some argue that we can't vote online due to election fraud. The argument is bogus because our elections already have problems, just ask Stacy Abrams. We can improve democracy and the participation of young people if we update our current archaic practices.
You have to make it a more selfish proposition for young voters. They need to understand what will happen to them, their families & their loved ones in the future.
Spell out that their environment will continue to be eroded, that their wages will continue to be minimised, that their rents will continue to rise, that their healthcare will continue to be both expensive and poor quality, that the food they eat will continue to be filled with GM and that their immediate futures will be more difficult for them if they don't vote.
Hopefully, this is the sole silver lining around Trump. He is a beacon, an orange, glowing reminder of how bad things happen if you don't bother voting.
If Trump's sheer ineptitude and nastiness can't get young liberals to the polls, I doubt anything can. But I'm confident that Trump will be voted out in a landslide, with the young showing up in unprecedented numbers.
1
@Dean
Why can't you convince older voters to vote this way? Why should only the young be concerned about the future. Everyone should be.
1
Honest question: can out-of-state university students vote in the state of their temporary university residence? Where do they register to vote: at home or at university? Is this straight-forward? Does the DNC make this evident or easy to follow? It's assumed in this article that young people could vote but are too lazy to vote -- I'm asking if it is relatively easy for them to vote from wherever they are. Does a Michigan resident vote in California if they're attending UCLA? Or do they submit an absentee ballot to Michigan if they're from Detroit? Are there on-line tutorials on this? Anyone? Anyone?
1
This is why young Bernie activists need to get behind Biden: reforms of the electoral process that the author outlines are far more likely to happen under a Biden Presidency than under a resurgent, reenergized Trump Presidency. The utter folly of Sanders voters vowing to stay home, and their cynical, not to say, Leninist idea, that another 4 years of Trump will make conditions so bad that voters will flock to a Bernie-like candidate seems perfectly obvious.
The Sanders movement pushed the DNC to move primaries up, reduce the caucus system, and end the winner-take-all delegate primary. They also pushed the super-delegates thumbs off of the scale in the nominee selection process. This hardly indicates an unwillingness on the part of the so-called Democratic Establishment to change.
Biden's candidacy will evolve and his Presidency will be pushed in the Bernie direction by these young activists, who really need to condemn those of their peers that don't vote.
In 1968, after we were beaten by a Democratic mayor's police and our beloved Eugene McCarthy was defeated and RFK and MLK were assassinated we refused to vote for Humphrey. There were never better reasons to disengage from an election. We stayed home and Nixon kept us in Vietnam Nam, invaded Cambodia and millions of people died needlessly. Did I mention Watergate?
Young people--you stay home or vote for third party candidates at yours and America's peril.
3
I worked with the 18-24 year old age group for 30 years. I always encouraged them to vote. When asked about voting before the elections the most frequent response was “ I do not know who to vote for.”
2
Voting hurdles appart, what we, from the other side of the ocean find most concerning is that large part of the Democratic voters has became as adept in avoiding crucial issues as their red counterparts.
In unseen for century pandemics, when the healthcare problem of US is becoming the most important part of the candidates programs, the liberals continue to vote for the most red Democrat among them. Biden’s conservative positions on healthcare, social security, youth has been loudly and proudly proclaimed since decades. And I am not even
going into the most unpleasant part of his problems, the “don’t ask, don’t tell” issue which is beyond obvious for all who has made the effort to check the proofs in form of videos. Dams has been hiding behind the “unelectable” argument when public healthcare is mentioned, there was and wouldn’t be a better moment to push for it as any poll, absolutely any, conservative voters and democratic alike show an overwhelming support. A presidency is to be gained on a single issue, one that was clearly in the liberal agenda since decades and yet.. That silence is an irrevocable proof of the “establishment” argument made by progressives. Biden will lose if nominated. After all the weapons were in your side, current crise highlighting like never the terrible state of US social net, healthcare etc, Dems will arrive to pull defeat from the jaws of victory and we, from outside can only despair, asking you why. Again.
18-25 year olds have to have car insurance. Apparently buying liability insurance or illegal drugs is so much easier than voting. I guess some people will believe anything.
3
I turned 18 years old on October 18, 1972, three weeks before the 1972 elections on November 7 - the very first time an 18yo could vote in a presidential election. I was a freshman at Fordham University in The Bronx, but my home was a suburb west of Boston. Since one had to register at least 4 weeks before the election, I figured out how to register in my home town from New York while still a 17 yo. Then, very early on the morning of November 7, I hopped on the 3rd Avenue L, switched to the #2 train down to Penn Station, took a northeast corridor train to South Station in Boston, caught the T out to Riverside Station in Newton, and hopped a bus to my hometown. There I cast my first votes (straight McGovern/Democratic with the exception of Ed Brooke for senate). Then i turned around, reversed my travel, and was back in my dorm on East 191st Street by mid-evening (in time for a then legal beer). I have never forgotten that day, not because I felt I did anything special, but because I did my duty as a citizen.
I agree that our civics education is in shambles, and that we are grossly negligent in forming people for citizenship. But, please don't patronize young people by excusing their non-voting because it is too "new" or "complicated," or because there are too many obstacles. Young people are smart, inventive and can figure how do to something they've never done before - even if it never has been done before. If they really want to. Even when there is no road map. I did.
3
Registration is easy; I am baffled you think it is "so difficult".
It's not like getting a driver's license, and everyone manages THAT!
In my state, you register at the post office or a public library and it is a postcard you fill out and mail in -- no stamp required.
How is that "too hard for young people"?
5
Don't hate me, but I blame the Media.
Contemporary journalism is really shoddy. A few simple. catchy slogans are trotted out and then the whole herd of y'all just repeat them ad nauseum.
It works exactly like all advertising. The sheer weight of repetition breaks resistance down and people find themselves repeating the same slogans in everyday life to one another — though they don't even understand what they mean.
Right of Center status quo media (the vast majority) prefer to simply ignore cogent points brought up by those who oppose the status quo. The small number of big players (six parent companies) make censoring the political debate or even skewering it fairly easy.
While far right wing media simply flood the zone with sewage — so that reasonable debate becomes impossible. Social media does much the same thing by trivializing everything with absurd juxtapositions that make photos of your friends cat seem as weighty and worthy (or even more so) that the debate about your right to healthcare.
The professions in american life are no longer self policing — their are no standars of quality or bodies of ethics to refer to. Ambitious careerists driven by the greed is good mantra of the last 30 years have smothered american journalism and no one risks angering the big boss by pushing any controversy. People in our society only do as they're told now and they do it for money.
In short — the kids can't keep up. They aren't old enough to figure it out. They lose interest.
1
@Arthur The vast majority of media is right of center? You can’t be serious.
You can't blame the young folks. They are so worried about paying the rent, healthcare, school loans, and jobs, etc. they neccessarily tuned out this election. My son is stranded in Scotland, his University also shut down. They are scared.
Bernie lost. He hasn't got a team ready to go. He is exhausted and in ill health. He hasn't got a team ready to hit the ground running. He cannot either. Ignore the bots. They are here and everywhere. He needed to be a Democrat, not a loner to win.
Biden wasn't my first-second-third or fourth choice... But he has a team. None of the others do. My fav EW couldn't gather enough of a team, (but that won't stop her from working for us).
Sad that the Bernie babies didn't back her sensibly. She listens and doesn't yell and jab fingers.
1
One could also conclude that the young are simply replicas of Bernie -- lots of talk, not much walk.
4
“It’s not that young people are disengaged....it’s just that they really struggle to follow through." Which, sorry, is just another way of saying "apathy."
3
As an educator until recent "retirement," I knew a great many young women and men quite well. They are more committed and knowledgeable than the young women and men in my era.
They are active in social justice issues and often give great amounts of time and effort to this activism.
While the logistical barriers Bouie cites are part of the problem, I think the real issue is something else. I think young women and men see the political process as fundamentally corrupt and ineffective. They see elections and voting as the province of older folks, who have failed to address the critical issues they care about most. They have little to identify with. Beyond the most directly active Bernie supporters there are millions of young citizens who care about the policies Bernie supports, but have no connection to him as a candidate. They see the issues quite separately from any candidate.
No matter the progressive bona fides of Bernie or any other candidate, the young voters still see two old white men competing to run in a corrupt system against another old white man.
That is unfortunate, but nonetheless true. It doesn't mean we shouldn't make every effort to engage them, but it will require persistent effort. We have earned their suspicion and cynicism. Now we have to earn their trust and respect.
Excellent piece. Conclusion: don’t focus on that part of the electorate, but on the larger segment that understand that elections have consequences.
2
Look at the numbers for participation in the presidential primary. What would those numbers be for state and local elections without a national candidate on the ballot? Look at overall participation in, say, board of education elections. Terrible. Across all age groups. Just ask young people who their elected officials at the local and state level are. No clue. This isn't just about Sanders getting his base out to vote. This is about getting people to participate in a democracy. If people feel their second amendment rights are threatened, they come out of the woodwork to vote. Tell them their fundamental right to vote is threatened and they yawn and go see whose on Facebook. One thing is certain. As much as the younger generation is different from the older, they behave just like their parents did when they were young. And their own children will as well. America is no longer a democratic experiment. We are very much set in our ways.
1
Everything in this piece is an excuse. First, civics education begins at home. If older family members vote and discuss their choices with their kids those kids will be more inclined to vote themselves. Second, before I started working as a volunteer elections clerk I thought that registering to vote and voting in Texas was intentionally made difficult by the GOP-controlled legislature. But that is not true. Registration can be done while getting a driver’s license and during the many, many voter registration drives conducted by both parties at schools, churches, shopping malls, etc. And at least in Texas we have a long early voting period - a full 11 days (including a Saturday) with voting from 8 am to 5 pm (7 am to 7 pm on the two Thursdays). During this past primary election, it was disheartening to see our polling place bereft of young voters yet to see the gym filled with young people in the middle of the day. Obviously, lack of time could not be an excuse.
4
There is actual evidence that comprehensive civics education makes a difference. Why on earth wouldn’t you just support that idea?
I have no idea how young people in college vote. is their address where they live at school? unlikely, or they'd have to change their ID and registration every year. if it's with their parent, where do they vote? how do they get an absentee ballot?
when I was in college I drove home to a different state to vote, because I had a car and no idea how else to vote. instead of criticizing young people, why not raise awareness of how to register and vote away from home, or make it easier to vote with constantly changing addresses? why not put the effort into simplifying the mechanics of voting?
2
@Laura Why not make voting simpler? Because it can’t be simpler. Ask anyone who has voted. How do you buy gas? Where do you buy food? Buy car insurance? How do you subscribe to The NY Times? Buy a cell phone? A laptop? All of these things are just as hard as voting.
These may be good, as general reasons, for why younger voters don't turn out in the same proportions as older voters.
But that's not the context.
The central question here is: Why is the proportional turnout not appreciably better this year? Why is it down?
These questions are comparative, and are explained by differences between then and now, not by the kinds of constants that are the bulk of what Bouie sets out.
Voter suppression is a factor that could go some explanatory distance.
But so is a factor that has long been known - cynicism; the (correct) view that your vote doesn't really count when your political party is already captured, and so, your effort isn't worth the bother, a set up for disappointment.
16.5% of the US population is between 18-29. So if they were 16% of the electorate in Michigan, and 14% in Missouri, they are voting very nearly in line with their proportionate representation in the population. It’s not that younger people are not voting; it’s that there are more older people. This article (and most others) seems to miss that point.
6
No, actually Bouie says exactly that in several states, the population of older voters outnumbered younger ones.
Many months ago I said in multiple comments that young people don't vote, especially those of the liberal persuasion. In '16 my then 29 year old office manager (I'm a physician) was a big Bernie supporter. 2 weeks before the NYS primary he told me he needed an hour break to go vote. No problem. When he came back I asked him how busy the polls were. He said, "Oh, I got busy and sidetracked and didn't make it". I asked if he'd like to go vote now, as the office was slow. He declined. And that in a nutshell is what you get when your campaign relies on young, woke voters: bupkis.
11
Sorry, no. Maybe it’s just that this is the one thing their helicopter parents can’t do for them (can’t help saying that, as a professor). They are adolescents, still into themselves—at the same age, we had become adults. So I have voted in every election since 1969, registering in multiple states over the years as I moved for work, sending in absentee ballots when needed, while raising my son, running a business, etc. I am older but support Sanders, but I am not the future, the young people are. They need to grow up.
6
Voting is just another area where the family is important. Raise your children to understand voting, have dinner time conversations about issues and how they can play a part.
I realize it is more difficult to have conversations today when everyone is looking at their phones all the time, but it still needs to happen. I agree that once you get them to vote they continue without fail.
6
Please give me a break! It’s hard to learn how to vote? Maybe the reality is that the potential young voters are just used to having everything made easy and believe me voting isn’t difficult.
Look at the Democratic turnout In Michigan dramatically up because those who voted cared to make the effort.
8
I remember discussing voting with a class of grad students. One complained that no one teaches you how to register to vote. I pointed out that no one teaches you how to register your car, either. She said, 'Oh, yes, it was confusing, I had to . . .' and missed the point that she got her car registered. She was still not registered to vote.
10
That is the problem. I learned to actually vote and evaluate candidates on their merits by my parents. Many of my peers did not vote. All the enthusiasm in the world for campaigns and candidates are for nought if they don't vote. If they don't vote, don't complain about the result
5
They just made an unfalsifiable claim. Suppose someone has to do something X for the first time, but they are apathetic and don't do X. What, if anything, would distinguish that from "I would have done X and I should have done X and I could have done X, but X is something new, so I didn't do X"? The two cases are indistinguishable, especially when we know that doing X is not hard--voting is not running a marathon or taking an IQ test.
The problem with unfalsifiable claims is that they are always a semantic deception. The semantic deception here is to try to redefine apathy away.
11
We have civic responsibility. One should donate blood and one should vote. Politicians should make it easier for people to vote, The poor and minorities also have low turn out and politicians ignore them because of this. The Democratic Party should work to get out the vote. Their platform should focus on economic issues that appeal to the young and the poor. Sanders attack against Biden helps Trump. He did this in 2016 and helped Trump against Clinton.
2
In 1960 it was my first national election. I was very nervous inside that curtain in front of a machine I had never seen before. I cast my vote for Kennedy and all the lever automatically flipped down on all the democrats. I stared in horror and quickly left the booth never bothering to ask for help. Yes, I agree...young people are very anxious in their first voting experience.
1
I think parents need to nudge the really young and first time voters. This primary is my son’s first time voting. He supports Bernie. I support Biden. I made sure he voted because I want him to get into the habit of doing it no matter who he votes for!
6
I voted as soon as I qualified. And I have never been all that politically motivated. I know that I had a civic duty to do so. Perhaps you should institute a tax bonus for voting? Alternatively you could make it compulsory with penalties for not voting, like Australia...
1
@Andrew The bonus for voting is living in a democracy.
2
Bernie thought that he could spark a revolution among young voters.
As a brilliant protagonist, however, he has made several unforced errors. If he can acknowledge them, at the very least to himself, his influence will increase wherever he serves.
!. A revolutions does not start by an individual calling for one0. Lenin exploited the rebellion of the masses against the tyranny the Czar.
2. Castro won tremendous support because the Cuban people were furious at the Ugly American's utter disrespect of their culture.
3. There are youth generated grass-roots equivalents of revolutions before Bernie's eyes: Climate Change and Gun Control. Although he vowed to make a strong effort to enact The Green New Deal, and to defy the NRA, I believe young voters have not supported Bernie as much as he hoped because they knew he had too many other non-achievable priorities
4
@Abe Markman
Older people really fail in trying to understand where this movement comes from. It didn't start with Bernie Sanders and it won't end with him. The feelings and issues were already in place, just waiting for a candidate they can trust to back them up and fight for them and who has a record of staying the course with integrity. Once that happens, they're all in for that person.
Comparing Bernie Sanders in any way to Castro and Lenin is absurd and just reveals how terribly off the mark most of this analysis is.
These kids aren't communists. They're just tired of living with a corrupt government that works against them, not for them. They're tired of watching their futures crumble before their eyes because politicians and older voters don't have the guts to do what needs to be done. They're tired of lesser-of-two-evils elections. They're tired of struggling harder and ending up with less.
Older voters have a responsibility to vote with younger generations in mind. The future is theirs, not yours. Joe Biden is not the future.
1
There is an underlying assumption here that youth votes are more informed and “progressive” than those of older people. There isn’t much evidence that’s true. Most young people think and act as they are told to. Discretion comes later.
5
@Michael Livingston’s
Any vote that is cast for "Just get Trump out and worry about the rest later," and then picks has-been Joe Biden to do the job, is neither informed nor progressive. Young people see clearly, but were outnumbered by old people who can't.
2
The article is based on an assumption that is unproven by the author: if the young people who did not vote had voted, they would have voted for Sanders. We have no idea how they might have voted. The possibility they did not vote because there was not a candidate they could support is also possible.
8
There are many excellent points here, and I will support any of the initiatives recommended to remove barriers to voting, especially ones that discriminate against protected classes and the poor. Mr. Bouie makes a good point that some of these things also make it harder for young people to vote.
At the same time, I am surprised by the idea that young, hyper-connected digital natives cannot figure out how to vote. States, counties, parties, and campaigns have websites. Google it! Nonetheless, if you know how to vote, please encourage and help others. Just asking someone if they are going to vote and what their plan is can make a difference.
Lack of follow through and cynicism are way bigger problems, and only for voting. Part of this is lack of life experience, not yet having tried to complete some larger project, and even, for some, affluence and the ease of being able to do so many things online. You also have to learn persistence, how to make a system work for you, and how to get tasks and people to come together to produce an end result. In this regard, a properly structured national service could make a difference.
2
Bernie thought that he could spark a revolution among young voters.
As a brilliant protagonist, however, he has made several unforced errors. If he can acknowledge them, at the very least to himself, his influence will increase wherever he serves.
!. A revolutions does not start by an individual calling for one0. Lenin exploited the rebellion of the masses against the tyranny the Czar.
2. Castro won tremendous support because the Cuban people were furious at the Ugly American's utter disrespect of their culture.
3. There are youth generated grass-roots equivalents of revolutions before Bernie's eyes: Climate Change and Gun Control. Although he vowed to make a strong effort to enact The Green New Deal, and to defy the NRA, I believe young voters have not supported Bernie as much as he hoped because they knew he had too many other non-achievable priorities.
1
It should be federal law that all states allow for same day voter registration. More polling places need to be created and laws requiring photo identification need to be abolished. Furthermore, lowering the voting age to sixteen would allow educators to better teach the importance of voting, especially when students have the ability to actually do it while in school.
2
I've been canvassing for Democratic candidates since 1992. In 2018, I knocked on over 1,000 doors in Staten Island to help elect Rep. Max Rose. Here's the problem with young voters: They often say, "Elections don't make a difference. All politicians are the same." How wrong they are. Time to grow up, kids.
8
"Young people lack the confidence to vote"? This is filling in little circles on a piece of paper or pressing a key on a board. It's not like they're signing up for the Army or doing their taxes. If they can manage to drag themselves to the DMV to get their drivers' licenses, they can surely, somehow, muster up the energy to vote. If they wanted to, that is.
15
The US has more intentional obstacles to voting and democratic representation than any other country that uses similar lofty rhetoric about citizens' rights and honoring the voice of the people.
The formidable obstacles to the will of the people include the Electoral College, widespread voter suppression at the State level,
the two-party system that is actually a dual monopoly not provided anywhere in the Constitution, and big money in politics.
This country is locked in to oligarchy. Manipulated beliefs are more potent than reality.
3
I’m not so sure that allowing college students to vote on campus is a good idea. Take a small liberal arts college in small-town central Ohio, for example...one whose student body is extremely affluent and whose supporting parents live across the country. Should they be allowed to vote in local elections to determine the rate of local income taxes? Are they truly residents of that community? What if their parents are claiming them as dependents in another state...and in fact what if they pay income taxes in their actual “home state”? Should they be encouraged to vote on campus in national elections but not in those that determine local issues? It’s not a simple question.
2
@JPE
Correct. Makes no sense to allow students to vote at their away-from-home colleges where they aren't legal residents, are dependents of their parents who live elsewhere, and who may even, at state universities, be paying out of state tuition rates. Get an absentee ballot, for cryin out loud. That's what the rest of us did.
2
@JPE It doesn't matter. If you live in the state or local municipality, you have a right to vote, period. They spend money in the local community.
@NW If spending money in the local community is the criterion, I expect to be voting soon in Aspen, Big Fork MT, Blue Hill, Maine and Boston.
1
I turned 21 in 1966 so I could finally vote in 1968.
Liked McCarthy but didn't think he stood a chance.
Really disliked Nixon.
Humphrey was one of the gang that sent me to Vietnam so I had no desire to vote for him.
So, the first year I could have voted, I did not vote.
My mother said to me that because I did not vote she wanted to hear no political complaints from me for the next 4 years.
It was the last time I didn't vote and I've been complaining ever since.
Voting is not only a right and a privilege it is a duty -- it's the cost of being a citizen.
18
I canvassed door to door for Bernie in NC, especially in rental apartments complexes.
Although young people were more likely to choose Bernie for president, I frequently found out that they were unregistered to vote in the zip code in which they currently lived. I registered as many of them as I could, but older people were more likely to participate in this process.
Younger and poorer citizens frequently move and for this reason are more likely to be disqualified by the system. Younger citizens were more likely to be unaware that moving disqualified them.
On the other hand I did encounter a higher percentage of younger people, especially younger males, who expressed no interest in politics. If I had a chance to ask them why, they frequently said something like "what does that have to do with me?" or "I voted for so-and-so and it didn't make any difference." If I was talking to a young woman at the door and asked her about the guy in the house they would sometimes roll their eyes and say "don't bother."
So I would say it’s a combination of voter suppression and a lack of faith in the ability to deliver to those who are trapped in dead end jobs.
Despite these disappointments, Bernie did win the two precincts in which I canvassed the most, but lost every other precinct in the city. This morning I have a meeting to organize one of those precincts, which is my own.
4
I have been voting consistently since I was eighteen, but it wasn’t until my forties that I started voting in primaries. Despite all the hype, debates, and media, getting young people, or any people, to the polls for a primary is tough.
2
I'm glad to see voter suppression brought up. This is a major obstacle or youth and especially for minority voters in places like Texas, the Carolinas, Georgia and elsewhere.
1
Fact 1 - voter suppression very real and IS targeted at groups likely to vote Blue.
Fact 2 - Bernie did not get his youth turnout in states where there is little voter suppression.
Perhaps two things can be true at once.
6
This explanation, failure to follow through not apathy, is consistent with my observations of my grandsons and their friends. But there are other dimensions to consider.
The most obvious is social interaction. When young people turn out for a Bernie or Trump rally, they either go in a group or meet up at the rally. The rally is an event that provides an opportunity to interact with their peers and to express their ideas and beliefs through that interaction. Voting is different. Voting is not about social interaction. People don't go to the polls in a group, line up together and then sit down at a table together and banter as they mark their ballots.
My oldest grandson turned 18 two or three days before the 2016 election. He voted and after the polls closed had a group of about ten high school friends over to watch the election returns. In 2018, he was a college student living in an apartment and he voted early.
My experience as an election worker is that first time voters are high school juniors or seniors accompanied by a parent. A large percentage take advantage of Minnesota's voting day registration procedure. Twenty something voters often come with a significant other and, judging by their appearance, are more likely to be white collar than blue collar. I saw only a few young voters at the March 3 primary. Only about 270 of the 1,320 registered voters in the precinct voted in person on March 3.
5
Hard to ignore the irony that Republican voter suppression tactics will contribute to them not getting their preferred opponent for Trump's reelection bid.
3
@Tim
Actually it's working quite well for them, along with the help of corporate media. Biden is their dream candidate.
The Republican wing of the Democrat party will refuse to vote for Sanders. The progressives will make the same stand. Trump will win and have a mandate .So say goodbye to the Supreme court for your lifetime. Roe will fall .Social security will fall. Trump is setting that up as we speak. Why do you think he wants to stop payroll taxes for the rest of the year?To bankrupt it. Its Bernie or bust and everywhere I go progressives say the same thing. #neverbiden . They think the Corporate Democrats need to lose again to wake up from there Corporate hypnotics state.
4
Many of the young are involved, but many are not. They are still too involved in themselves, feeling that "this [political] stuff does not have anything to do with my life," as they struggle with figuring out how to live on their own, and how to navigate the complexities of modern life. Students are figuring out what it means to be thoughtful about things that were earlier in their lives decided by their parents. They are figuring out relationships and future employment, managing daily life, and doing well in all their classes.
And the elephant in the room is their experience of living through their phones; and you cannot vote by phone.
Sure, they can be mobilized to vote. But have you eve seen how many issues they are being mobilized to engage in at their schools? Prioritizing issues is difficult, and the process of actually voting when one's own vote by itself is hard to find significant, and remains secret, leaves many cold and alienated.
Sanders is helping us all by getting more actively involved than others are able. but he cannot do it by himself.
3
Like many other things that become good habits, voting starts at home. My parents always took me to their polling place when I was a kid. They were active in local school board elections. They were well-informed.
In short, they were excellent role models for engagement. Between that and a spectacular civics class in high school I’ve never skipped an election.
147
In 2004 I was part of a lawyers' project organized to ensure that new rules for provisional ballots were being followed in the Bush-Kerry Presidential election. I was working at a polling place in Philadelphia when an older African-American man in a worn Army fatigue jacket walked up. "Miss," he said, "I want to vote for John Kerry. Is this where I can vote for John Kerry?" I told him it was. He hung back for a moment, then said quietly: "But Miss, I don't read. Can I still vote for John Kerry?" I assured him he could, and introduced him to a Democratic Party representative, who assisted him with a ballot. As I went back outside, I heard his jubilant voice: "I just voted for John Kerry!"
To this day I think - how much courage did it take for this man to admit to complete strangers that he was illiterate? To the author, who says young people who somehow can't follow through with voting because they "lack confidence," I commend this man's story, which I will never forget.
100
Older generations vote more because they've learned it the hard way:
If you don’t have a seat at the table, you’re on the menu.
306
@HarT
And even if you do, if you support candidates than prioritize profiteering corporations over things like public health.
8
@HarT
I was born in the last years of the Jim Crow South. The lesson was clear: if you don't or can't vote, the politicians have no incentive to take you seriously.
17
@HarT They vote more because they are RETIRED.
3
I honestly believe that there is a form of voter suppression that discourages younger people from voting as demonstrated by some of the comments. I have had to move frequently for work and have been locked out of voting in many elections based on voter registration laws that make it difficult to vote. I understand that I many not have the same knowledge and commitment to local issues as long time residents, but as a citizen I should not be prohibited from voting in national elections and primaries because I have to relocate for work.
When I moved from OH to KY, there is a lag time between when you register and when you are actually eligible to vote in the state, forcing me to miss 2018 midterm elections. I live in an apartment and have never received a ballot in the mail as some people state.
In college, I remember being unable to vote as well. I did not have a car, I was registered to vote in my home town, and being from a rural area was unfamiliar enough with public transportation that figuring out how to register and vote off campus seemed extremely difficult. Also if you do not have a stable address, as many young people move and change addresses at least once and often multiple times a year, they will not be notified of voting because the elections commission has trouble keeping track of where they currently live.
1
I don't know. It sounds like a litany of excuses to me. When I reached voting age, I just couldn't wait to vote. No, for the vast majority of young Americans, it is not hard to register and then go out and vote. When I was in college in the early 70s I was appalled by my colleagues who were vociferous in expressing their political views but in the final analysis they just didn't bother to vote. It was inexcusable then just as it is now. Call it laziness, apathy, or lack of awareness, I don't care. But the excuses just don't cut it, sorry.
363
@James " No, for the vast majority of young Americans, it is not hard to register and then go out and vote. " Your experience in the 1970s is totally valid, but that does not mean it is the same today.
I'm in grad school in NJ right now, a state that makes it much easier to vote, although the Kafka-esque maze of information you have to get through to find out how to do it by mail is ridiculous. Thankfully I figured it out at first and have been able to vote. But I didn't receive my mail-in vote last year, so I went to the polls. Where they promptly told me I was a mail-in voter and could not explain why I didn't receive a ballot. So even with the ease, I am having issues because I can't find out how to tell if I need to renew my mail-in or go to the polls when NJ primaries come around. NO ONE CAN TELL ME!
So, I grew up in TX. It was IMPOSSIBLE to vote as a student, and I jumped through hoop after hoop, because so many times they won't accept your school address and you are supposed to drive home. Okay, so you have to drive 10 hours to get home to go to a voting booth and then drive all the way back. During a school week and with work? How's that supposed to happen?
Your inability to read the article or to empathize and see beyond your own point of view just doesn't cut it. I'm so sorry to be rude on here, because I am not that person, but this is just the straw...
36
@James
Maybe a national draft would mobilize the young to see how much these votes affect them. You don't need to actually have a citizens' army, just make it a virtual potential backup. It might wake some up to the reality of what voting is all about.
7
@James These are all excuses, speaking as someone who didn't vote until they were 25. The reason I didn't vote before then wasn't because my life was so "difficult" or because I didn't have enough civic education. I was apathetic and, frankly, too lazy to care. That's my fault, not anyone else's. Columns like this feed into the victimhood narrative. Young people aren't victims who just have things happen to them and complain. If they wan't change they have to do something about it -- like vote.
31
First, introduce civics education in high schools, if not sooner in the school process.
Second, automatic registration.
Third, vote by mail.
415
@John Graybeard
In 40 states registration is a half page form you print out and sign, then mail at your convenience.
How onerous is that if you're genuinely interested in voting?
It's about as difficult as paying your electric bill by mail. It's easier than getting a library card--which has to be done in person.
I'm all for early voting and vote by mail--a single weekday can be inconvenient for working class people and the elderly. By all means expand/ improve that.
But registering? It's no hardship at all if you want to.
31
@Laurence Bachmann
I've seen students clueless about how to mail a letter -- all their communication is by their phones.
8
@John Graybeard
You are correct. In Kansas, civics is part of the high school curriculum and we are beginning to see it pushed much harder. I actually give credit to my senior government students for registering to vote and for voting. I will add to your list and say that rank choice voting needs to be mandatory in the primaries because that is the only way to make sure that mail-in ballots are counted correctly once candidates leave the race.
7
I am surprised that this article misses the biggest barriers that disproportionately affect younger voters - employment and childcare. To vote I have to haul out at 630 am to be one of the first in line, with an infant and toddler in hand, in order to drop them off at daycare and make it to work in time. There's no way i have time to wait 7 hours in line. Maybe we are taking care of older parents as well. Young people move more often - each time figuring out new registration rules and poll locations, let alone all the other routine bureacracies of not being settled - car registrations, health insurance, trying to find a dentist. Why do retirees turn out so much for elections? Because they don't have a thousand other pressures and responsibilities.
433
@Dee - Use an absentee ballot. It's what old people do if going to vote is inconvenient. I work only two days a week (free nanny service for my daughter) and I don't have time to stand in line for 7 hrs.
It's important for your children and my grandchildren that we vote this year. If you have a Senate race in your state it is really important.
157
@Tim
Some states only allow absentee voting if you have a specific reason like being out of town during the election or being over 65. That said, it's mostly red states that do this so as a Connecticut resident (I'm assuming), Dee should definitely look into that.
45
Just vote absentee. You can do it in every state, no line, no hassle. For every problem there is a solution.
47
Being young is difficult? I disagree; it's the easiest time of most people's lives. Also, the idea of doing away with voter registration is not a good idea at all, partly because it would then be easier to commit voting fraud and partly because taking the time and the initiative to register to vote is an indication that someone is mature enough and interested in the outcome enough to vote.
1
More voting sites and improved civics education are valuable for everyone, will help boost participation of all, and deserve wholehearted support. Staking a candidacy on youth turnout however, never really made much practical sense. Both as a matter of demographics and perspective. The presidency is a national office and is the only office designed to serve the interests of the ENTIRE nation. Sanders failed to generate a sufficient national response in the generally more left leaning Democratic Party. It was dubious that he could do so nationally as well. Had he somehow been able to garner the nomination, he would have been easier for Trump to defeat. And even if the coronavirus outbreak led to a victory, his ability to govern and turn his wishes into reality would have been futile, leading to an even more divided and acrimonious country.
1
"young people lack the confidence to vote..." That's not all they lack. As for liberalizing voting laws, let's follow the ancients and make sure that people who have experienced life can vote without restriction. This obsession with the "young" as guides to government is a form of madness. As for Bernie, I well remember a 2016-rally at Washington Square Park. Massive turn out. Many of them too young to vote. How many of them were registered to vote in NY? Of course, Bernie couldn't carry even the city.
3
Sanders’s appeal is providing benefits without having to work for them. Voting appears to be too much work as well.
5
Maybe, as in juvenile justice, their minds aren’t fully developed until they are 25. They find time to register for classes and to register their cars but no time for voting registration? Besides they shouldn’t be voting at their temporary residence anyway they should be voting from their home. They don’t become eligible for instate tuition by just starting college so why should they get to vote. How hard is it to fill out a mail in ballot. What the author describes is just what he says it isn’t, apathy. Giving the kids the right to vote what just an overreaction to the draft. Then we took away the right to drink and to smoke and to rent cars. We should repeal the amendment, and they probably wouldn’t even come to vote then.
5
Great points. I hope Joe Biden and the DNC read this. My reading of many twitter posts suggests Sanders supporters once again feel the election has been stolen by voter suppression. In fact, AOC tweeted about this in the recent past. Biden and the DNC need to acknowledge the facts as have been stated and find way to help young voters to register their votes during the rest of the primaries and in November. Denying will only heighten the split. Also, Biden has to find a way to connect with the young voters. They want want Bernie has proposed. They are afraid for the future and need to understand his administration will not accept the status quo and he will fight like Bernie for them. This does not mean adopting Bernie’s policy platform. It is showing that on some things like global warming, education and health care he will fight and not compromise. This is important not only for November but for the future of the country because as the viral crisis has shown, the US does need big changes.
3
@Daniel: If Bernie is elected POTUS will we still have a Congress? A constitution? Separation of powers? Votes for Dixie? And you think you can lecture New Yorkers about global warming?
Voting should be considered an American pastime as sports. And while that may never happen to younger adults, its roots, like education and citizenship, must begin early on and be encouraged by parents and families. Naive perhaps, yet necessary to strengthen what's left of our democracy and sustain it. If only this audience had half of the follow through that newly granted citizenship have to vote, at least it would be a good start.
1
A very thoughtful piece, much appreciated.
Having taught both high school kids and college freshmen, I believe it's too easy for us boomers to chastise the young for their inaction, laziness, or lack of motivation. I'd prefer to lob a couple of thoughts at our own generation: lack of empathy, lack of memory of our own youth, and failure of understanding what the young deal with now more than ever.
Yes, youth need to learn how to follow through and vote. But so do a whole lot of other Americans of all ages. High school grads, kids entering the work force, college students -- the world they are thrown into is one that is spinning pretty full force. Have we forgotten the maelstrom we stepped into at that age? We started a lot that we didn't finish, and we've since forgotten.
Let's create pathways, knock down the roadblocks, and curtail our judgments. Like or dislike Bernie Sanders, he represents something youth respect -- it's more than policy, it's a passion for integrity and justice, a matter kids care about. Let's not mock their struggling to get to the voting booth, a process that can be more complex than it seems.
7
I've been in New Zealand 15 years. I am not a citizen, yet as permanent resident I received a voter registration form in the mail. In fact, it is a legal requirement for me to be registered.
And every election, I get a letter in the mail with election information and a ballot.
NZ Democracy is not a panacea. While I really like our current PM, I am not a big fan of parliamentary government. And there are very few checks on power here.
But when it comes to voting and running elections, Americans could learn a few things.
2
@Bill No parliamentary democracy with free polling has ever had power grabbed by a personality. Unlike your country.
The check on power is that of people voting in a parliament which by nature is diverse.
3
@Bill Nothing human is a complete medicine--never mind a panacea! That's why democracy must not be a spectator sport.
Another try:
I looked into the claim that youth voter turnout for Bernie in these primaries is less than in 2016. It seems to be simply untrue. In fact, the youth have been voting in HIGHER numbers compared to 2016, just not as much (or as high) as the older age-classes have. Also, the fractions of older age-classes (that make up "baby boomers") in the population are higher now than in 2016, adding to the APPEARANCE that youth voter turnout is less this time. But it is the SHARES of the electorate of younger age-classes that have gone down from their 2016 fractions, especially compared to the age-classes of the baby boom, who are very politically-engaged. (Beware of misleading data/analyses based on GENERATIONAL trends rather than age-class trends, because each generation does NOT correspond to the same length of time, i.e. boomers occur over 18 years, whereas Generation Z involve just 5 years.)
Furthermore, since Democratic party affiliation and voting in general is lower among the youth compared to older age-classes, data from closed and semi-closed primaries ESPECIALLY under-represent the likely participation of youth in the 2020 general election (the whole point).
https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/essay/an-early-look-at-the-2020-electorate/
https://vtdigger.org/2020/03/06/politifact-a-closer-look-at-turnout-young-voters-and-a-key-bernie-sanders-strategy/
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1l5fpK7ysQhQbZPv9hnZ_-PO1J1zBVPXSSQjNejTXecY/edit#gid=1189109697
4
While I agree that the Republicans have made voting more difficult for young people, I disagree with your diagnosis. When I turned 18 (1978), I was excited to vote. My parents had instilled in me that voting was essential to preserving our democracy. It was my duty. Thus, I have voted in every election, even the boring local ones. Perhaps parents need to put aside their phones, and tell their kids to put aside theirs, and have a heart to heart talk about democracy. Parents just need to tell them they can keep their noses in their phone when they’re waiting in line. I bring a book.
7
I have a guess about the phenomenon described in this article. Motivation. Are our youth motivated enough to overcome the obstacles outlined in the article to voting. It seems a minority are. Of course, barriers to voting should be removed. Although education of the process is important, i don't think it would be enough I think resilience and determination to follow through with their values and convictions might not be strong enough. Maybe we need to do a better job building resilience in our children.
1
I live in a state where you are offered the opportunity to register while you are renewing your driver's license. Easy, peasy. The young people here certainly know how to get a driver's license. During the 2016 election, my house was flooded and my mother died of pancreatic cancer the day before the election, but I still showed up to vote for Hillary, mostly against Trump. My mother would have skinned me alive if I hadn't.
12
Where there IS apathy is in older adults standing up to the systematic efforts by GOP to their on-going efforts to put one road block after another (sometimes literally) before these younger voters. We see it going on each election cycle and cry foul and shame on you and then sink back into allowing state legislators to learn from their right-wing neighbors or from their annual ALEC meeting what's the newest trick. The panic we see today because os Covid19 could shake this up as older voters may demand more options and secure sights where people can pick up mail in ballots. The fiascos in Texas and Michigan reveal students will vote and want to but won't if they are purposely and cynically shut out of the process for fear of their voices being heard.
3
I try again:
Young people can't turnout to vote if they don't EXIST. This article is way off.... There is a reason, after all, it's called the "baby boom". Despite progressively increasing mortality, age-classes of the baby boom are LARGER than are the youngest age-classes (of voting age). If it's restricted to registered voters, i.e. share of the electorate, this difference is huge. In truth, Bernie does incredibly well with young voters (of ALL kinds). The fact that they followed a boom in fertility is not really their fault. And the fact that the our youth have never been proficient voters (especially compared to retirees who have a little time on their hands) is certainly no fault of Bernie Sanders. But this is NOT how the narrative is spun in this paper and the rest of mainstream media. A demographic artifact and a general feature of our youth are FALSELY used as grounds to question Bernie's electability (despite the poll data) - and for the general election no less! In such terrible times as these, a safe bet is what we need..... And so many readers take it hook, line and sinker.
2
@carl bumba
Way off? The statements in this article make the your exact same points.
Now, about the spin in “the media” excluding this article...you have a point.
As one who was in college during the height of the Vietnam war, and just before enactment of the 26th amendment, we took to the streets in protest of that war because we felt that our lives depended on putting a stop to it. Maybe today's youth haven't quite recognized the even greater threat to their lives. If not, it's time they do. There is a clear choice between the parties in terms of climate. Make it.
4
@Michael
They are not so apathetic. This is spin. They just don't have the numbers that us baby boomers have.
1
There is an old saying-"if you are not a socialist at 18 you have no heart. If you are not a conservative at 40 you have no brain ".
There is clear , unarguable , evidence that the majority of voters move from left to right as they progess through life . This is largely because once they have a stake in society, responsibilities to meet , children to support , etc. they are less likely to be attracted by the socialist mantra of a big nanny state , reduction in personal freedoms , and curbing of self reliance .
The lefts attempts to get more " young" people to vote is understandable as they are are the most malleable group, having little real life experience , but I suspect the older , more experienced , more knowledgeable , groups will continue to hold sway at election time.
3
@Robert lund
What you call conservative I call self-absorbed and risk-averse. That's the older vote in America, whether Democrat or Republican. They vote out of fear and out of what makes them feel comfortable - the future be damned. That's what stops the kind of progress we need to thrive and survive.
I see older voters as the more malleable group. They're easily spooked and can be lead by fear. Joe Biden was finishing in 4th and 5th place before South Carolina. Nobody wanted him. It wasn't young people who suddenly changed their minds and overnight were convinced to jump on the Biden bandwagon. It's scary how quickly and easily older people were swayed to do that. That's a lack of thoughtfulness and integrity.
As a progressive old Boomer who has worked GOTV in every election since 1972, I really had my hopes up that the Sanders movement was going to substantially increase turnout among those under 35.
The only state where they did it was Nevada, a caucus state. Nowhere else
The whole premise of the Berniecrats' electability argument was that they would succeed in mobilizing a huge cohort of folks who normally don't vote to do so (including especially young people), and could swing states with this previously-untapped voting muscle
But in all 12 Super Tuesday states, the turnout among young voters was actually less than it was in 2016. That completely undercuts the Berniecrats' narrative that the electorate would be different and more progressive this year.
In states like California, claiming that there are difficult obstacles to voting is rubbish, where I can get an absentee ballot just be asking for it, no questions asked.
Like many graybeards, I held onto my absentee ballot until Election Day itself, and cast my vote based on one thing and one thing only: who has the best chance to carry the swing states in November. It wasn't Sanders.
Sanders was not a victim of a Democratic establishment conspiracy, or a media smear. He was a victim of the false premise of his own supporters' claim, and lost fair and square to those of us who voted for someone else. The truth is that there are just not enough people who support Sanders at the ballot box.
21
@Karl Lawson
"...cast my vote based on one thing and one thing only: who has the best chance to carry the swing states in November. It wasn't Sanders."
When you voted in California, none of the swing states had even voted. In fact, when you voted, Joe Biden had only won one state, Sanders had won three. And the one state Biden won, he has no chance of winning in November.
You weren't convince by a careful consideration of facts on the ground, because there were no facts for which to base your belief that Sanders couldn't win in swing states. You were convinced by other forces. Just admit to it.
I believe you are mistaken here, which should be good news to you. I think you are not looking at vote levels, but vote percentages of the electorate.
The youth have actually been voting in HIGHER numbers compared to 2016, just not as much (or as high) as the older age-classes have. Also, the fractions of older age-classes (that make up "baby boomers") in the population are higher now than in 2016, giving the ILLUSION that youth voter turnout is less this time. The shares of the electorate of younger age-classes now have gone down from their 2016 fractions and, especially, compared to the politically-engaged age-classes of the baby boom. (Beware of misleading, mainstream media data that are based on GENERATIONAL trends rather than age-class trends, because each generation does NOT correspond to the same length of time, i.e. boomers occur over 18 years, whereas Generation Z involve just 5 years.)
Furthermore, since Democratic party affiliation and voting in general is lower among the youth compared to older age-classes, data from closed and semi-closed primaries ESPECIALLY under-represent the likely participation of youth in the 2020 general election (the whole point).
https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/essay/an-early-look-at-the-2020-electorate/
https://vtdigger.org/2020/03/06/politifact-a-closer-look-at-turnout-young-voters-and-a-key-bernie-sanders-strategy/
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1l5fpK7ysQhQbZPv9hnZ_-PO1J1zBVPXSSQjNejTXecY/edit#gid=1189109697
1
Man, the far left just can’t face facts. Nothing stopped record youth turnout in 2008. If anything, states have made it even easier to vote since then, the handful of states with new restrictions notwithstanding.
These children don’t care about voting as much as LARPing 1969 counterculture. “Very favorable” just means they’re having fun.
And you know, given the way Sandernistas rail against tHe eStAbLiShMeNt and honestly believe the elections are being manipulated to hurt Bernie, it shouldn’t be a surprise when they’re no-shows.
Anyway, time for Bernie supporters to ask themselves how they were able to get this so wrong.
10
It isn’t easy to vote? No, it’s very easy to vote if you want to vote. The very idea that somehow young people can’t figure it out is beyond absurd. The steps are: 1. You register to vote, and 2, You go vote. That’s it. I have been doing it for many, many years.
10
The perennial reason why anyone doesn't vote is the belief a single vote won't make a difference. So why bother, particularly if a Republican cabal in the state legislature uses the national GOP playbook to make voting as hard as possible?
The other surefire political strategy is the myth of inevitability, extremely effective for incumbents. Why bother to vote if you believe the certain outcome is defeat? Acting like a winner (see Trump) is 9/10ths of winning.
Americans are alienated, self-conscious, status-sensitive and usually afflicted with textbook low self-esteem. It's psycho-logically critical for most not to be viewed as losers; folks engage if they think they're on the winning side.
Consider "Joementum" (as coined by Gail Collins) as the powerful perception that Joe's winning the nomination after South Carolina and Super Tuesday. It seems inevitable and it ups turnout.
Conversely, how many younger voters didn't bother because Bernie's campaign appears faltering and past it's sell-by date? Backing a losing candidate is the same as losing in a winner take all culture of instant gratification.
Americans are immersed in a commercial culture that equates conspicuous consumption with "winning". Commercial brands mythologize products by associating them with winners or winning. That's why Nike pays winning athletes tens of millions to wear their sneakers.
Americans just can't get enough of winning.
Isn't that why there's a loser in the White House?
6
@Yuri Asian
The bandwagon effect and love for the status quo is not American so much as "party establishment" American (both dems and repubs). Trump was and outsider and underdog who squeaked through the repub party establishment because their votes were split (and they did not collude like the possibly more corrupt dems did).
You are mistaken that the youth did not back Bernie. This is pure sales from the media based on a demographic artifact (lowered share of electorate due to baby boomer age-classes... see my two comments, if they post them). Since it never existed, your conclusion that they viewed his campaign as "faltering" and "past its sell-by date" may also reflect their powers of public persuasion. (It is in-line with the narrative, that's for sure.)
2
@carl bumba
Actually Trump as an "outsider and underdog" was the Mainstream Media's framing of Trump, which I think was lazy and off-the-mark. Trump was the leader of "us" against "them", not some populist rabble-rouser fighting the bosses. Trump championed a white world of privilege that was being destroyed by hated non-white heathen outsiders and women who don't know their place. Forget democracy, which is a plot to undermine white dominance, this is war for the real America. That's not outsider or underdog. It's the opposite. His followers are insiders defending against outsiders who aren't real Americans. That's why Trump didn't campaign as much as he waged war. Dangerous Mexican rapists are falling from the sky but I'll build a roof and keep them out.
I don't think it's credible to suggest social conformity and norm-setting are political plots deployed by " 'party establishment' Americans."
They're basic human traits that can be rein-forced or penalized by history, economics, belief systems, ignorance, fear, culture, conflict.
I think the premise of democracy is that every person has primary agency for themselves on a level playing field without violating the defined rights of others. If that's broken, it needs to be fixed first before we can get back to leveling the field.
We'll never get to MCA, or free college, green energy, guaranteed income, reparations, whatever, if there isn't a road.
Politics is promises and democracy is about keeping them.
... they "the youth" viewed his campaign as faltering....
I write poorly.
BERNIE SANDERS Is finding out the hard way that his followers will reflect his style. The young voters aren't showing up. Bernie is AWOL when it comes to any important legislation. No follow through on either side. Figures. Bernie's a good man. But in my opinion, not presidential.
15
When I turned eighteen I could not wait to vote. When I cast my first vote I felt proud that I was doing my civic duty as a citizen of America. I considered it fortunate to vote realizing that because I live in America it is my right to vote and more so because I am a woman. How could I disappoint the women in the past who fought so hard to allow women the right to vote? I remember waiting on lines because there were many people performing their civic duty to vote.
I am now sixty-six years old and still feel the same when I vote. The sense of pride and participating in a process, voting, is as real as it was when I was eighteen.
America has her problems and is not perfect. There is always room for improvement but compared to other countries I would not want to live anywhere else. What has happened to pride and people taking responsibility for practicing their civic duty?
Young people give many reasons as to why they do not vote and I am not judging if their reasons are valid but if they vote for the candidate that they feel best represents their concerns their candidate could win. If they do not vote then complaining and blaming is not an option unless voting is denied them. That is another topic.
13
A tragedy for the young - and for the nation. Thank you Mr.Bouie, you are a lantern for me here in the darkness of the Times.
My first election was 1972, and I held a minor position as a township coordinator. We beat the machine - what was left of the old New Deal ethnic coalition in Mercer County - Trenton and Princeton, and won the state wide race. I walked into a black bar in the heart of downtown Trenton around lunchtime and saw a teacher of mine from high school; we talked turnout but he stressed, asked where the "walk-around money was." I didn't have any to hand out.
Yet it was the springtime of my life and it was good to be young and very alive.
We all know what happened in the fall of 1972.
The McGovern camp had high hopes for capturing a large share of the first time young voters. They didn't turn out.
It was a tempering experience for "democracy" and the people know best: they chose a deceitful, scheming and yes, criminal man to be re-elected, while McGovern's honor was torn to shreds over campaign decisions and weak "character." In less than three years, idealism was vindicated...perhaps too late.
Durable but depressing theory for a democratic republic.
Today, our Republic is on the ropes in many ways. I thought that for all his human shortcomings, and he has a lot, Sanders vision is the right one for the nation.
Once again, for better or worse, my fellow citizens have told me I don't know what I'm talking about.
We'll see.
8
Or maybe the polls and Sanders campaign grossly overestimated his youth support?
11
Right. It’s the Boomers holding them back . . . .
15
@Susan That's not at all what he said. Maybe read all the way through before you comment?
I work with young people. My cohort is just about voting age. They're a nice bunch, but they're intellectually lazy. They don't like explanations that take longer than 10 seconds, and they don't like to read or spend the time necessary to do any real research on their own. However, they are very into themselves and the personas they've created on Instagram, Snapchat, etc.. Of course, not all young people are like this, but too many are. Bernie was foolish to have relied on them so heavily.
28
We expect the young to vote, to do their 'duty' for democracy, America. But, really, we've sold them out. We heap wealth and income and property and power on the relatively few, some younger tech-kids, but most older investors and those in management and such. We're a selfish and greedy lot, looking out for ourselves and the older you get, the more you get. That's one thing we've made sure of.
So, the young don't vote enough. Sure, they see the game. They know they may have to rent their whole lives because we're not really a good community, good citizens, moral. We're okay with folks not being able to afford homes and health care and safe neighborhoods. Not 'my' problem.
So, this virus may well wake the system up, at least, show Americans how little we're a community and how much were the greedy capitalists of materialism for the self.
I certainly don't blame the young; I blame everybody else.
7
Very hard to drive turn out when all the major media outlets lie and smear about Sanders and his policies 24/7.
A Harvard study of Twitter comments shows the Bernie Bro narrative is a 100% complete lie. The establishment ,DNC, Obama, Clinton and the Money making powerhouse The Trump Resistance all colluded to keep Sanders out of the White house. They don't care if they lose to Trump. They make a ton of money in opposition. The Corporate Democrats ( Republican lites) dont want working people to have healthcare or college education that doesn't cost the equivalent of a home mortgage. They want to keep there status and the corrupt money that flows from it. Biden will lose and they will be happy to blame progressives and start taking in 2024 money.
12
@gene There are no corporate Democrats in VT. And there are practically no brown people in VT. We Birkenstockers created a monster in Bernie Sanders. It was cute for 30 years or so to send a wild man to Washington to yell at everybody, but now it's nuts. He's a Donald personality with a Marxist litany of grievances that has no interest in racism, misogyny, or reality. Drinking Bernie's Kool-Aid is not as harsh as drinking Donald's, but it's still Kool-Aid.
1
That said, the barriers the GOP erects to try to stop young voters from voting are real. Let's not minimize that. But, of course, the way to fix that is to vote in overwhelming numbers.
This makes me wonder if basic political literacy is part of the problem here.
A lot of Sanders' appeal is his genuine and passionate diagnosis at the heart of American economic inequities. It understandably attracts a young following who have known nothing but a dysfunctional political system that looks more backwards than forwards.
But inspiring those voters is one thing; teaching them what it takes to get anything done is another – and with all due respect for the tremendous influence Sanders has had on focusing Democrats on a more progressive agenda, he is the last person to educate anyone on how to get anything done.
Promising a platform of deep structural change that skips past the politically difficult but necessary work of coalition building and compromise is going to attract voters for whom magical thinking appeals. Magical thinking doesn't get bills passed and, apparently doesn't get people elected either.
8
In the midst of a very serious national and global pandemic, are questions like this even important?
Bernie Sanders did not get enough votes. He has little chance now of becoming the democratic nominee. Is this even a problem? The voters said "No".
Let's move on - and focus, to solve the next crisis!
6
@WeNeedFacts
It's a problem because these are the future voters (hopefully) that will have to live with the choices 65yr olds make for them now.
The same people who've caused the issues prevalent now, are just continuing them, or kicking the can.
It is a problem.
Moving on is literally a life and death situation for many.
2
Maybe a better explanation is that the young are as a group less of a stridently extreme-leftist demographic category than a Sanders fan like Bouie wishes. In general protest votes are more shallow than conviction votes. In this case it may be less true due to the horror of Trump’s presidency. But for a larger category of voters Biden offers conviction (although mildly so) and protest in the same candidate. Which is not the case with Sanders.
6
College campuses often have booths staffed by energetic, enthusiastic and informed students who are there to encourage their fellow students to register and to walk them through the process.
I would like to see an article interviewing some of these student activists. Their point of view on why the youth turnout is so low would be more than just speculation
8
"It is difficult to get anyone to do anything for the first time, and that’s especially true for voting, which isn’t an easy process in the United States."
Alas, the deeply felt fire of youthful passion for changing the world extinguished by the trauma of having to fill out a simple form and showing up at a polling place on the right day. Bet they stood in line for a new cell phone more than once.
19
The author of this article interprets the information he presents as not being about apathy, but when I read this article, it seems to me that many of the examples presented here are simply apathy looked at through a sympathetic viewpoint. For example, I have a hard time interpreting this as a persuasive example of non-apathy: "'Young people are coming into their own,' Holbein said. 'They are leaving home, they are learning to be adults, and in that experience of managing their lives, voting is one of the things that falls by the wayside.'” That sounds like a description of apathy to me. There will always be some excuse for voting to "fall by the wayside." Older voters often must overcome serious health issues in order to vote. Doing so is not apathy. Letting the ordinary challenges of growing up cause you to let voting "fall by the wayside" is apathy.
13
It’s not even a little bit difficult to vote. Many young people are flaky and unreliable. Nobody did it to them, that’s how they are.
12
Huh! Perhaps the young voters think thar Sanders is too old. I am an inveterate anti-socialist, but, apart from this, I am concerned about Sanders's age and health.
I wish him many, many productive and enjoyable years.
My first vote was in 1978. and as I tended to but heads with my conservative father I would tell him that the youth vote would show up in droves and sweep the old fossils out. I was right about how corrupt Nixon was but my Dad had me bested on me being wrong about the youth vote. It has been the white whale of the Democratic Party in every election since my first. I don't try to understand why the Youth vote is the lowest performing demographic every election. I just know it has happened every election for my entire life.. I am not suggesting that the youth of America should have their concerns ignored but if any candidate counts on them coming through then they are going to be disappointed. Sanders ticked off every single issue that the polls show the youth of America are concerned about. And they still were the lowest performing demo. If someone wants to shout out OK boomer go ahead but the data doesn't lie.
8
Generally, I really like Mr. Bouie's writing and think a lot of his thought process, but I wonder why he feels the need to make up so many excuses for non-voting youth. Young people will stand in line for hours or even overnight to get tickets to a movie or a concert they want to see. I'm just sayin'....
15
I was 16 in 1972, 18 in 1974 when I first voted. Life wasn’t somehow “easier” & neither was voting. In all the years since I’ve always found a way to vote. There are legitimate obstacles to voting, suppression is a real thing. But sorry, youth isn’t an excuse for not voting. We talk about “excitement” & “passion” and forget that being engaged is work not entertainment. It’s got to matter more than momentarily if you really want to make a difference. No excuses accepted.
4
I really am disappointed. I did not donate to the DNC due to incompetence. I have been donating to various youth groups in the hopes they would turn out. Oh. well.
5
I feel a certain amount of relief when I read an opinion writer who expresses a realistic sort of human compassion. Is important to remember, if you are older, what you were actually like at 18, 20, 22. And if you were one of the really on the ball people at that age, think of your cohorts, who decidedly were not. But who got it together later.
I have great optimism in our demography if nothing else. I see radically different attitudes about accepting difference and notions of the common good and of the commons, along with a surprising willingness to work hard and a lot of entrepreneurial spirit. I have come to understand that the appearance of sloth and indifference is really an issue of styles of expression along with the inexperience we would expect. That is a typical generational conflict.
So yes, take them by the hand, with love and compassion. Lead them to the promised land. They may deliver us from ourselves.
3
If we get a a Democratic sweep in November, I think the number one priority should be to make it possible for people to vote from their cell phones. It is technologically feasible, and it should be doable in 3 years.
While some people think that charging people with a felony for mistakenly voting is 'protecting democracy', others think that making the logistics of legal voting irrelevant can help save democracy forever.
Great article. Thanks!
Sorry, no. It would be far too easy to hack an election this way. The trend in recent years has actually been to go back to something with a clear paper trail, not make it more electronic. Note what happened in Iowa the other month.
What should happen is that every US citizen should be automatically registered to vote on their 18th birthday . . . (and to use a possibly unfortunate phrase) whether they like it or not.
Some of the hassle for youth getting to the polls on election day - or voting earlier by mail - has had more to do with the grey area between using a parent's address vs. where a young adult happens to be living at any given moment (such as a college dorm room or other short term rental arrangement) when filling out the registration form. The solution is to simply get rid of the formality of the registration form altogether (and the Electoral College, while we're at it.)
If you want to involve technology, make it automatic for the county or city to send out reminder phone texts or emails days and even hours before deadlines to mail in ballots or show up to the polling places. But the actual balloting should continue be old-fashion pen & paper.
Signed: 60-something Sanders primary voter.
4
I wonder whether the Sanders movement, with its dreamy nature, bold revolutionary talk, giant rallies, and celebrity surrogates, set itself up for failure when it came to the young. The dreary age-old process of registering and then quietly lining up to vote, with all the old fuddy-duddies and non-movement establishment losers, in some old musty elementary school must feel like quite the letdown. When I was a precinct captain here, I visited every household in the precinct. Among other things, whether or not folks were supporting my candidate, I told them (if they wanted to know) how to vote, that is, where to go, on what day and at what time, and what they should expect. We surprised everybody and won out precinct. So that kind of effort pays off. One of the things you are saying here, Jamelle, is that the Sanders campaign did not do enough of that. I'm a bit surprised, given the millions he raised. Yep, voting is too hard. Registering in particular should be automatic. And, yep, there is even outright suppression of younger voters, especially younger voters who are college students. But that's something that the Republicans are doing and not other Democrats. It looks to me as if the Democrats and other entities like the Carter Center's Democracy Project should challenge those Republican laws which apparently have the sole aim of disenfranchisement. Where in our laws does it say that if you are a younger voter it is Ok to take away your right to vote?
4
@Robert
Unfortunately even in Democratic held/run states, the polling places were often few and with hours long waits especially at the colleges and Uni's. (Here in LA county...)
https://www.teenvogue.com/story/young-voters-california-texas-voting-struggles-super-tuesday
As a Sanders door knocking volunteer, we were setting records all across the nation. Over 500,000 doors were knocked on by Feb. 3 in Iowa. Doing just as you did, answering question and telling people were to vote and answering questions on how to register etc. Apparently that wasn't enough.
https://berniesanders.com/new-hampshire/press-releases/bernie-2020-surpasses-2016-field-records-new-hampshire/
Everybody needs to remember, it isn't just this current generation of Youngers, theirs/all of ours, we're the same; as younger, first time voters, the majority have historically been low turnouts. Hopefully the future voters will do better than we all did.
Agreed, Dems et al need to do a better job making elections and voting easier to increase the depressingly, repeatedly low US turnout.
3
@Dobbys sock
Thank you for your reply.
1
Here in Oregon we have had vote by mail for at least 15 years. It should be done nationally with self adhesive envelopes. We get about two weeks to vote and return our ballots. There are free drop off boxes. It's been great and it's really easy, safe and reliable. The elections staff matches your signature on the envelope to the one on your voter registration card. The elections people deal with those voters who have mail problems and even homeless voters. No one can complain too much in a state that has vote by mail.
11
Eighteen to 29 is a span of 12 years. Thirty to 44 is a span of 15 years. Forty-five to 64 is a span of twenty years.
So, of course 18-29-year-olds make up a smaller percentage of the electorate than 45-64-year-olds, they're a smaller percentage of the population.
That's a completely different thing than saying a larger percentage within any one of those different-sized groups likes a particular candidate. And it's a completely different thing than saying 18-29-year-olds are less likely to vote than 45-64-year-olds. (It's also a completely different thing than saying while one group goes crazy for a candidate but doesn't vote for him, another group may be lukewarm for a candidate but votes religiously.)
Yet these things are constantly conflated and pundits marvel about one or more of these things as if they're the same, every two years.
7
@J T
Beware of generational comparisons of electorate share. They differ in the time-spans/age-classes that they cover. If you look at 5- or 10-year age-classes it becomes clear that there are simply FEWER young voters than old voters (that now make up the baby boom). Pretending that Bernie can't even get the youth vote this time around is a gimmick used by cowards of the establishment.
1
It would be interesting to examine the statistic in Washington state, where mail-in voting with 3 weeks time to do it make voting incredibly easy - you don't even have to use your own stamp. And one doesn't have to decide whether one is a Democrat or Republican until you mail it in. I assume that they may need to register in order to receive a ballot (they need to know who and where to send it to). I would like to see the "turnout" (i.e. % mail ins) of those who have received ballots, as well as the number of people who haven't registered. Also 18 yrs old is one thing, but 25-30 yr old is another.
2
Younger potential voters may have all the same obstacles as older voters, (conflicting schedules, busy, preoccupied, lazy--yes, it's true for some older people, too) plus a few extras.
First and I think it's a big one: I think many of the younger Sanders supporters are fed up with how the parties function and are registered as independents. This prevents them from being able to vote in primaries. Sanders is also an independent, so his supporters in particular might be inclined to not associate with a party.
Many younger people who plan to vote might think about the November vote but might not be aware of primaries. If their parents only vote in November once every four years, then that's what they are familiar with.
Even if they are aware, they might not be familiar with how or where to register to vote, or what the deadline to register is especially if they are not sure when their primary is.
Finally, politics can be a contentious topic among family members. Some might not want to reveal their preference to their parents by voting in a primary when the GOP has their candidate locked.
2
Did no one tell them that they could play games on their smartphones while shuffling at snail's pace in line for four hours? That might have turned the tide for Bernie.
5
My husband and I always took our daughters, now aged 26 and 37, with us when we voted. We gave them advice on getting registered when they turned 18. Now both vote all the time, post pictures of themselves on social media proudly sporting their "I Voted" stickers. Working parents, it can be a hassle to drag little kids to a precinct, but it is so worth it in the long run.
11
"Young people" are no more all alike than "old people," and attributing Sanders's current standing to the young as a group is about as sensible as blaming senior citizens as a group for Trump being in the White House. There are plausible reasons other than a need "to learn how to be citizens" that youth turnout for Bernie was not in the numbers he had hoped. E.g., the healthy, non-college bound sector of the young may have viewed certain features (free college/Medicare for all) of Sanders's platform as more likely to be burdensome than helpful to them.
2
I asked the mid 20s man why he doesn't vote. He said he is not willing to vote for an imperfect candidate to stop a more imperfect candidate. I am hoping that he changes his mind by the end of October.
15
We use student poll workers in CA--paid and treated same as other ones. I love working with them!
One polling place I observed in our Primary gave each first-time voter a round of applause and a mini cupcake.
On the other Coast, students are registered in class too.
2
@Ivy unfortunately what you described violates Federal election law. Nothing of material value is permitted to be given to a voter as a condition of voting.
1
We've known much of this at least since 1972. The campaign hasn't developed solutions to problems other than the field of dreams notion of build it and they will come. I do question the notion that asking people to register to vote is an "arbitrary barrier". It should be far easier, sure, but it's neither arbitrary nor an insurmountable obstacle. Leaders of the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, and of the Democratic Socialist Party need to spend a bit more time figuring out how to fix this situation.
2
I think this article is really cherry picking numbers and using poor statistics.
1. Looking at a few states that Biden won, and ignoring all states that Bernie won. Obviously picking aging midwestern and southern states is not going to show high youth turnout. What about youth turnout in California and Washington state?
2.Inconsistently measuring the percentage of the electorate that was under 30 and not the percentage of people under 30 that voted in other cases. Which is it?
This seems like the typical blizzard of random numbers that can be easily picked to tell whatever narrative you want.
2
If they care and they do not vote they do not really care. The Bernie fandom sounds more like posturing. And Bernie honestly believed they would come true. And that is bad judgement.
5
Today's young voters will be different in 10 years. To the idealist minded 20-year old socialism is seductive. In ten years not so much. People's preferences change with circumstances, and yes learning. Fortunately, the US remains conservative and can do.
4
@R Rao
Yes, that must be why Soc. Sec. and Medicare are so well liked by the oldsters. They reject socialism.
Just like the farmers and our military. Just like the trillions promised to the small business yesterday, and our gov. response to Covid-19 by the Trump administration. Lots of socialism for those in need.
Just don't call it that because oldsters/conservatives don't want commie help.
Got it.
1
Yes, voting takes effort. I walked an unfamiliar neighborhood at night in South Philadelphia in 1984 looking for my polling station. Pennsylvania didn’t send any information about polling locations or election booklets the way California did. Voting for Walter Mondale was really important to me and my gay roommate who was reeling from the AIDs crisis and Reagan’s homophobic response. I was livid in 1980 because I had not re-registered to vote after changing dorms on campus and I wasn’t initially able to vote for Jimmy Carter because my addresses didn’t match. I went back to my original polling station and fudged by address, I have encountered voter suppression and I overcome it. And yes, every new behavior take practice. Start at 18.
6
How long will we continue to make excuses for the young adults who proclaim that they amongst all voters truly care, yet don't actually do the most basic thing of following through and voting?
Young people have never voted and it's extremely unlikely that will change any time soon. Yet the mainstream media devote so much attention to the enthusiasm young people have for a particular candidate. Yet they don't vote, and don't really matter in elections.
15
@Richard
I agree. Maybe it is a matter of maturity. Maybe the voting age at 21 was not so off after all. Even if they vote at 18, which is fair enough since they can go to war at that age, it seems they do not even have the political maturity and critical sense and experience of life to make such a decision. And they know it, so they wait and do not vote at 18.
3
This article is full of nonsense, conjecture and rationalizations.
I turned 18 in 1972. I went to school in Massachusetts, canvassed in Rhode Island and worked the polls for McGovern in Pennsylvania where I grew up. And as the article states, this was the first year eighteen year olds had the vote. I was a freshman. There were thousands like me. We worked, we had loans, we had to get through our first autumn away from home. But we figured it out Enough already with the excuses. If young folks who support Senator Sanders can carve out time to attend rallies (and to troll folks on line) they can figure out how to make time to register and vote in a primary! Also if Mr. Sanders working class voters can figure out how to.make time to vote, So can his student advocates. I get that part of the article’s point is that new habits are harder to make than carrying though established patterns, but it’s specious to apply that over-simplification here. We aren’t talking about four year olds learning to brush their teeth twice a day. We are talking about young adults carrying through on a one time basis for something they supposedly feel passionate about.
19
@Nick Salamone
Agree. Civics (and financial) education for high-school students is a great idea, but society must also overcome the inclination to infantilise and indulge young people.
6
are we quite sure we are reading the numbers correctly? Turnout of the older voters was much higher than in 2016. So the percentage of young voters stayed relatively low in comparison. Thus, if lots more young voters, in absolute terms, voted, they would remain a minority and it would appear they did not increase their turnout. Someone must have done that simple analysis, but I have yet to see it presented properly.
3
I registered to vote the day I was eligible in 1971, I have never missed a single election since then. I always told my students people died for the right to vote so get their thumbs out and register and vote.
10
I feel this is such a deep betrayal to Sanders. He's spending all his time and energy to gather the masses to make progressive change, and the youth show up strong to his rallies, and then essentially deceive him by not actually voting to give him the delegates he needs to continue the fight. I posted on many articles defending millenials - that of course the youth would vote in droves if they're attending all his rallies, it just makes logical sense, right? Wow was I wrong, and the anger and deep betrayal I feel on behalf of Bernie ... it hasn't gone away. This was really their chance to make their vote count and open up the doors to actual progressive policies, and instead they've pulled the rug from under Sanders and stabbed him in the back. To not have his back when it really counted on Super Tuesday and the Tuesdays since, just unbelievable.
12
The mistake is thinking that the few thousand people that show up at any rally anywhere represents the greater population at large. Even if a rally drew 50,000 in a large city that means very little, other than that you have 50,000 passionate supporters in a city of millions. What matters is who shows up to vote, and in this case they didn’t, period.
5
@VKG Exactly what I am thinking. The reverse is also true. Small rallies don't mean a thing, either. Otherwise Biden would never have had the resounding comeback he had.
Rallies seem, to me, a throwback to the early 20th century and before that. They are fun for those who attend them, but that's it. What goes on the Internet is way more important in terms of outcomes. Same for TV and, yes, newspapers, at least newspapers like the NYT that a have an online presence and millions of subscribers.
Of course, Sanders also did receive a huge number of individual donations. But, perhaps, these were mostly from older voters?
1
@Mrs_I ...
Young people never vote.
Which is why a Socialist candidate who would be swept into the White House by an unprecedented youth vote was always an infantile millennial fantasy.
One of our nieces will graduate in May with over $100K in debt. She loves Sanders. Why shouldn't she? What she doesn't understand that his plan for students to attend pubic colleges tuitiion-free and be forgiven for debts they owe. This is a sentiment that is equally noble and infeasible. A Sanders presidency would have zero probability of getting either plan approved, with many Democrats voting no. It's inevitable that Sanders will not capture the nomination. What must happen is for all of Sanders' supporters to vote for Biden in the presidential election. Biden is not for free tuition but he will be far more amenable to helping ease the burden of tuition than Trump ever will.
4
@nzierler he can actually do that on the first day, no 'approval' needed. Biden's brain is melting before our eyes and honestly? Most of us under thirty are sick and tired and frankly disgusted by so much compromise. They say shoot for the moon and you'll land among the stars but when it comes time for real political change, democrats compromise before they come to the bargaining table in the first place.
1
@nzierler
Student loan bankruptcy used to be allowed and accepted.
Biden helped write/pass the bills that disallowed that.
https://theintercept.com/2020/01/07/joe-biden-student-loans/
1
@nzierler 100k in student debt? Unless she's from a rich family, she's doomed. You didn't say whether she voted...just gave your cynical opinion.
I first voted in 1998, and my first presidential election was 2000 (remember Bush vs. Gore?) These years were the lowest rates of youth voter turnout, and I still remember the efforts of both parties to get us to show up. My generation has gotten a little better as we've aged, but we're clearly nowhere near our parents in terms of participation.
Honestly, I have no sympathy for 20 somethings who can't seem to "follow through" by filling out a ballot. I'm proud to have voted in every election since I turned 18, including midterms and primaries, and this in spite of having lived for 14 years abroad. Honestly, it's not that hard: voting by mail takes about ten minutes in the privacy of your own home--accompanied by your favorite beverage if you so choose.
As a lifelong Democrat, I'm sick of candidates pandering to young voters who don't vote and who then criticize older voters for not taking youth seriously. Sorry, Bernie could have had the nomination if you'd actually shown up. But you didn't, and that now means the rest of us don't have to listen to your millennial complaints about Joe Biden.
19
The reason for the low turnout among young people is the same for every generation of youngsters: they have better things to do with their time. By this I mean going out with their friends, finding a date for Saturday night, goofing off, getting high, etc., etc. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is the exception not the rule in her generation. Millennials are still learning how to be adults and one of those adult things is getting involved and voting. It has always been this way and it has nothing to do with how difficult it is to vote but everything to do with maturity.
12
@Miles I would add that young voters - I have kids ages 18 and 21 - generally are somewhat adverse to dealing with the world if it cannot be done online. My daughter, 21, seems to hate the telephone, for example, preferring endless texting. Luckily, she makes an exception for her old fashioned dad.
At least today, you cannot vote online. You have to vote in person or by mail. Voting in person is perceived as super-cumbersome by young people, which it is, in a way. I mean, it takes longer than clicking a button. You have to leave the house, somehow get to the polling place, make sure you are registered, possibly wait in line, etc. Voting by mail is convenient, but only if you have ever mailed something. To young people, snail mail is ridiculous. Plus you have to think ahead and request a mail ballot. It's not rocket science, but it does take a little time and thought.
I don't mean to disparage our youth. I was EXACTLY like them when I was their age. From what I recall, politics was the farthest thing from my mind. And in a way, that's healthy or at least normal.
To expect otherwise is probably a pipe dream. The young will never vote in the same numbers as older people. I don't think this is a good thing. I wish younger voter turnout were better. But it's not and it is not going to be, at least until voting can be done by clicking a button.
3
@Robert
The 'endless texting' is the same as my sitting on the phone for hours with my girlfriend which prompted my parents to endlessly scream "get off the phone!"
I was out partying while my parents were home watching Lawrence Welk.
That was the seventies.
Yammering endlessly with friends and partying heartily are hallmarks of youth--the specifics of how they do it don't matter.
In my time, we would never even consider not voting. We were taught it was like jury duty--a responsibility as a citizen. Not voting seemed vaguely criminal. Maybe it was all that civics education we used to get.
"Generally averse to dealing with the world if it cannot be done online...."
Call it what you will, I call it laziness.
2
So, it is not that they do not care. It is that they care, but not enough to actually vote.
1
Sanders made the big mistake of placing his bets on the vote turnout of the youth and not reaching out and working to broaden his base. The best thing he can do now is to bow out and use the influence he's gained to work toward obtaining his objectives. Let's hope he does this before it's too late. We cannot let 2016 happen again.
19
Thanks JB. Great column!
This speaks out once again, as it does every few years, for a National Youth Service program that would take youth, 19-20, out of the job market for a year and give them some basics on being soldiers, workers, adults, and responsible citizens.
Over the years, I have heard Senators Fred Harris, Gary Hart, and perhaps John Kerry talk about it, and this year I believe Susan Rice brought it up again in a great speech of hers I heard.
It's a great idea to take young people, every young person in fact, and put them together to get some military drilling, some classes on managing money, driving a car, civics, American History, and competitive team sports for a short period, one to two months perhaps, and then placing them in a national service job for the rest of their time.
Some would work in National Forests and National Parks building trails, planting trees, some in hospitals or nursing homes helping take care of others, some would work building housing for low income families, and so on.
Talk about a program that could tie in to rebuilding our infrastructure!
The goal would be to provide our youth with a sense of direction, competence and civic responsibility. Voting would certainly be a topic to be discussed and emphasized.
I have always thought it was a good idea. But it must be mandatory for all. That is a problem, I suppose.
Maybe someday it will get done.
10
I hope not. This sounds like a great option for some people, but would have been a great obstacle for me at that age. I'm one of those for whom going straight from high school through college was a road out of poverty and into a productive life. If that path had been disrupted I don't think I would have had the wherewithal to get back on track.
7
@Dennis
OK, but only if we let young adults design a mandatory one-year program for boomers to teach them communitarian values and empathy and demonstrate to them the ravages of unfettered capitalism. Working in soup kitchens, touring minority neighborhoods ravaged by pollution, visiting people who suffer pain or disability because they don’t have swell employer-sponsored health care, listening to young people who struggle under mountains of debt because they tried to better themselves.
Young people spend 12 years in school being trained to become productive employees. We can use some of that time to teach them civics. We don’t need to take another year of their lives to “whip them into shape.” How about we show them some respect instead? They have a hell of a mess to clean up, one not of their making.
It interests me that Amy Klobuchar intuits part of the problem with her proposal to make registration automatic on reaching one’s eighteenth birthday. That at least eliminates an obstacle Holbein and Hillygus identify. The youth vote matters to more than just the so-called progressives.
5
If youth voters have not yet reached the stage where they can organize their lives well enough to vote, perhaps they shouldn't be making decisions about who should run the country.
24
@MHW If you are old enough to drive a two ton vehicle that can kill people, if you are old enough to fight in a war, then you are old enough to vote. Clearly older voters don't guarantee we choose good leaders.
@MHW
They didn't vote for Trump, so you've shot your arrow at the wrong target.
Well, I’m an old guy—75. I started voting at 21, and have missed only a couple of insignificant primaries since. It does take some effort to vote, but it’s no harder than getting a driver’s license—maybe easier. So I think the answer is apathy. Voting is just not important enough to enough young people to make the effort to register and vote. I don’t think that they grasp the importance of voting—nor that their ideas will succeed only with strength in numbers. It bodes ill for Sanders, and for Biden in the fall. Successful democracy requires willing participants, and we aren’t seeing that among young people.
13
My wife and I always vote and tried to set an example to educate our Gen-X son and Millennial daughter to vote. The hard fact is they are too busy with their lives, and are cynical about politicians in general.
I hate to admit this, but in the Ca. Primary our daughter had her husband fill out her ballot for her. Wish I was just kidding, but there is a lot of indifference about politics among young Americans and I see it close to home.
6
For what it's worth, I'm 72 and voting for Sanders whenever I can.
13
"But what if apathy isn’t the problem? “It’s not that young people are disengaged, it’s not that they don’t care about the issues at hand; it’s just that they really struggle to follow through,” "
I would think struggling to follow through is the very definition of apathy.
13
The Sanders message should appeal to all voters not just the youth. The question should be Why aren't the adults getting it?. The media, fear of something new, cultural indoctrination, I don't know but it is a terrible shame that only the youth can see it.
13
@Stanley Niezrecki
You’re dealing with an electorate that, if you exclude California, cast most of its votes for Trump. If those adults didn’t get it in 2016, why expect them to get it now? Informed, thoughtful analysis before casting a vote has never been the electorte’s strong point.
6
How about serious disagreements with his policies? How about seeing his ideas not as the arrival of something new but as the return of something old?
Your bafflement will persist until you realize that it may be his opponents who get it, and his supporters who don't.
10
I have voted in every single election, no matter where I lived, ever since I became eligible, five decades ago. And I don't "early vote" or "absentee vote." I stand in line with my fellow citizens on Election Day. I look forward to the occasion and cherish it afterward. Makes me feel like a citizen. Maybe if these reluctant youngsters could get themselves to a polling place, they might feel the gravity of what they do, all alone with the choices laid out before them, and what it means to commit to those choices and walk away, knowing that your choices are now irrevocable. Honestly, every time I walk out of my polling place, I feel a tiny shiver up my spine, thinking about what I have just done.
18
Sorry, but this article is laughable. I see teens and twenty-somethings standing in line all the time — for the latest iPhone, for the hottest new band, for sporting events, and yes, for Bernie Sanders rallies. But they just can’t be bothered to stand in line? Please.
And in my state, where ballots are mail only, postage free, and sent out three weeks before the election, young people still vote at low rates.
Stop with the excuses already.
81
it wasn't hard to get me to vote for the first time. it seemed kind of cool - a rite of passage. for all my friends. we also enjoyed getting driver's licenses. going off to college was interesting, too.
it's not that it's too hard to get kids to vote. i think they say "i care," but that doesn't mean more than "he sounds cool." mostly, young people "up vote" stuff they see that they like. But that doesn't imply further involvement...
7
So why exactly don’t we celebrate the right to vote and cherish democracy together with a day off?
Why didn’t Obama/Congress declare it a holiday when they had all beaches of government? That would allow the working people to vote.
House, pass a bill now.
7
Or, it may be as simple as Trump in 2016 was - for all of his horrifying-to-many-voters-"potential" - a virtually complete unknown (politically). And as I recall, Bernie was usually railing more against Hillary than against Trump. And Hillary was - regardless whatever else was going on (Russia, Wikileaks, etc.) - much better known politically than Trump; and obviously was somewhat more negatively viewed by many - whether or not her presumed negatives were fully warranted or deserved.
This time, Trump is a very well-known factor - regardless whether worshiped or abhorred; now there is something "real" for voters to assess. And there is a deep, mobilizing fear in many voters about the potential negatives of a second Trump term.
But with Bernie continuing to bay at the moon according to many voters, and therefore considered by many to be pretty much a Trump of a different stripe - AND with no Hillary to kick around this time - it's no surprise to me that many "more seasoned" voters apparently see Biden as the least chaotic choice of the three remaining candidates (sorry, Tulsi).
8
It isn't enough for the young to vote if their elders are essentially voting against them by choosing the safe and comfortable against what is required to make change.
There are no sure things. Change requires some risks to be taken. In this moment, too many people are risk-averse because they are so consumed by defeating the Orange Dragon. Joe Biden is not a slayer of dragons, nor is he going to build Camelot.
There's no time left to be playing this game. At this point, the path of least resistance leads over a cliff.
7
The structural issues may help explain lower youth turnout, but not the fact that in many states the young people who DID show up at the polls didn't cast their vote for Sanders at the same high levels they did in 2016. (For instance, he received 55% of the youth vote in Virginia, as opposed to 69% in 2016; in South Carolina he won 43% of young voters as opposed to 54% four years ago.) We must definitely lower the barriers to young people voting, but that may not be a guarantee that Sanders will receive their overwhelming support.
10
@Jason In 2016 there were only 2 candidates; in the states you named there were at least 4 or 5, plus early voting for others who dropped out the day before. Comparing percentages like this makes no sense.
2
Sure it makes sense. It shows that some young people will choose alternatives to Sanders, when they're on the ballot.
1
Making noise and posturing make the young look good, especially in social media, but they just can't be bothered by something so private and boring as voting.
10
The excuse-making never seems to lose Mr Bouie’s interest. I voted when I turned 18. So did my friends. If you want to vote you can. It’s time to stop making excuses for people and demand that they take responsibility.
33
Only 32% of Americans can name all 3 branches of government. I have friends who did not know this until they were able to slow down and retire. That may be true for younger voters. If they do not know the branches of government, they probably don't know how important voting is
(assuming they live in a district where a polling place is near and without 5 hour lines).
10
Perhaps when the economy is roaring and jobs are plentiful for college grads, the allure of tearing down the system doesn't make much sense.
1
@Chris yeah so plentiful I love having two minimum wage jobs that have variable hours and often end up less than full time, then demand I come in at a second's notice. viva the gig economy
3
@Chris
That must be why the Trump administration just ok'd trillions of dollars to prop up business/corp. and respond to the health care crisis/covid; the system is just fine...everyone should just go shopping...oh, wait, don't do that...
1
Even if voting has become more restrictive, it is still quite easy. I voted for Obama in the first election I was able to when I was 18 in 2008. I’ve voted ever since. Civic responsibility demands that people put the effort to vote, even if it’s a little inconvenient.
Let me remind people that the same young voters that pushed Sanders to victory in Michigan in 2016 round are 4 years older in 2020. If these same voters stayed with Sanders plus the new 18-22 year olds Sanders would have gained voters. What happened is many Sanders voters switched to Biden this time around.
I’m a progressive so I was disappointed, but I understand that 2020 isn’t 2016. The primary was fair, and the voters made their choice clear. We have to respect the process and remember, that this general election is the most consequential in decades.
If we want to restore sanity to our country, bring competence back to government, and give us any chance for progressive policies to take place then we need to vote blue up and the ballot come November.
8
When I was a kid we always talked politics around the dinner table. It would never have occurred to us not to vote. We were excited to vote.
15
Excellent column Mr. Bouie! These are all much more plausible reasons for low youth turnout than the oft-repeated "apathy" line. And of course, look no further than Republican efforts to discourage, depress, and limit voter turnout of ALL varieties. Why? Because they know that the majority do not agree with Republican ideology, therefore, suppressing voters works in their favor.
This is why Democrats need to ramp up their efforts to not only win back Congress and the WH, but even more critically winning back state houses because that's where voting laws are made. The Republicans were shrewd in making that their focus years ago and it has paid dividends many times over. And working to win state and local races is a great place to encourage young voting age people to get involved and even run for office themselves. If we're to have a functioning democracy much longer, these are changes that need to happen.
11
I have found in my life and what I have observed in others' lives is this. We will do what we really want to do. We will put up with the hardships of travel, stand in line for hours for something we want, freeze in the stands for our favorite team because we really want to.
If a person really wants to participate in the voting process they will.
70
If you can't follow through on voting then you cannot demand politicians cater to you.
Voting is just not that hard. Yeah it takes some planning and some effort, but not nearly as much as sitting around several hours a day complaining on Facebook or Twitter.
It's all about priorities. If voting is not your priority you will soon discover that you are not the priority of elected officials who respond to people who actually vote.
44
Here in Berlin it takes me twenty minutes (!!!) to vote. I take my identity card (every Germany citizen has one) and go to the polling station. No long queues, no hassle, nothing. Just democracy. The US is miles away from that.
17
@Raphael Veradian For most of us, it isn’t. In California, the largest state in the Union, my ballot is mailed to me. It comes with a pre-addressed, postage-paid envelope. It needs to be dropped in a mailbox by the day of the election.
We tend to have a lot of downballot races and complex propositions, so I probably spend about six hours researching it. Then I invite all my friends over for wine and ballot filling. I make recommendations based on their personal political leanings.
Case in point, I invited two of my neighbors over. The middle-aged one, a working single mom, couldn’t come, but she made a point to stop by the day after with her ballot. She was registered with a different party, so I xeroxed a blank copy of my ballot, and helped her fill it out. She took her old ballot to her polling station, turned it in, re-registered, and filled out a provisional ballot.
Her niece, in her twenties, adores Bernie, has a job, and that’s it. She didn’t vote.
If free drinks, a mail-in ballot, and someone willing to help you with your choices on your own schedule isn’t easy enough, than it is on you. Full stop.
6
Here in Columbus, Ohio, it takes me ten minutes max to vote and that includes driving from my home to the church where I vote and then going home.
3
@Raphael Veradian For some states, it’s even easier — we have vote by mail. In many small towns or cities, stopping by a voting location takes just a few minutes.
Don’t make assumptions from Europe about all 50 states just because you see news clips of a few states that make it hard to vote.
1
While sharing a planet for all these years with so many people who voted for Biden I am curious how they got to where they did and how I got to where I am and how we experienced the world all along the way.
6
@Robert Roth My world is fairly simple..I want to vote in Nov to remove Trump from office
@Robert Roth The fact that you’re commenting from NYC might tell you something. How much time have you actually spent outside the greater NY area? Life is very different outside the blue urban bubbles.
My husband and I - retirement age - raised our oldest grandchild. He is 19, and still lives with us as he explores the working world and pays rent. He was automatically registered when he got his driver's license at 18, and we took him to vote this past November, and we took him this past Tuesday in Missouri. The highlight of his day was getting to sign the petition to give voters the opportunity to legalize recreational cannabis in Missouri, which we all three signed. Tuesday's ballot was very simple, with only the presidential primary to vote on. The rest of the primary is in August, and we will take him, then, too. I have no doubt that he will vote in November, and whether he still goes with us, or walks in on his own, he will vote, and it will become a habit.
7
Bernie Sanders got passed by Joe Biden because Bloomberg gave Biden a free ride the front of the pack on a bandwagon full of Biden-assigned voters just before Super Tuesday. To expand the effect of the Bloomberg team's gift to Biden, an organized group of media pundits sold the public on the idea "only Biden can beat Trump". The sole purpose of the Bloomberg campaign was to destroy the Bernie Sanders candidacy.
19
@Greg: More sour grapes. Bloomberg or no Bloomberg, Sanders was destined to lose, anyway. First and foremost, he did too much preaching to the choir, and none to the congregation. Even if won the nomination, he would have been blown out of the water by Trump.
Had Bernie been nominated four years ago, it would've been a different story.
But to go from one extreme from Trump, to the other extreme eith Sanders, is not what this country needs right now, whether you like it, or not.
10
@Ponsobny Britt
Don't you think it's a little suspicious that two candidates, after a year of hard campaigning, drop out of the race just hours before the biggest, most significant vote of the season? Dropping out so abruptly left their supporters and voters in the lurch, especially the early voters. Then the two of them hightail it down to Texas to get up on stage to endorse Biden. Common sense says something was going on behind the scenes there.
5
@Steve C. No. Many people dropped out before. Those candidates saw the writing on the wall after Nevada and SC. They joined with the candidate most in line with their positions and most likely to win. Amy in particular probably didn’t have much money left.
This is how teams and coalitions work. The fact that Bernie doesn’t seem to recognize this is simply one more reason he shouldn’t be president.
While it is just one article, BuzzFeed had a piece saying that Warren’s team reached out to Bernie when her campaign faltered, and no serious attempt to reach back was made. That is an appalling unforced error.
14
It’s not just likely Democratic voters. I recently met a new lawyer at a large firm who comes from Republican lineage. I did not intend to have a political discussion, but something came up and he said he does not “follow politics” and had never voted. I was eighteen and voted in the first year eighteen year olds could vote. (I voted for Nixon even though I was a Democrat— the only time I voted for a Republican for president, shocking myself, but I could not stomach McGovern.) That a lawyer (like me) never voted and could not trouble himself for eight years to read the news shocked and depressed me.
8
Every free concert Sanders had was full of potential voters who had no issues attending because of school or work or childcare or whatever other “barriers” this op-ed is trying to claim kept these same people from voting. And frankly it’s insulting to African-Americans who continue to vote in large numbers despite a long history of REAL barriers to suggest that youth voters have legitimate excuses for sitting out elections.
195
Amen amen amen
4
@Jolton Well stated!
4
I've said all along that young people won't vote until someone invents an app for them to do it on their cell phones. The other thing is that young people will wait in a long line to get into a Bernie Sanders rally, but they aren't motivated to do the same to vote. It appears young people are more interested in having a cultural experience than a political one.
30
The issue has to do with maturity. Young people may be old enough to vote but the process of following through with it involves maturity. It's about feeling a responsibility to do it; planning how to do it; taking the risks perceived to do it; organizing one's time and scheduling to do it; managing associated anxiety about doing it and more. Avoidance, which is what most young people choose to do on election morning for a task that affects their lives in a big way, presently and in the future, is not a mature thing to do.
17
The fact there are any hurdles is a problem. If people are spending the time to support their views in any forum then they do want to invest some time to politics. The problem is the mechanics in voting; it is not as easy as it should be and needs to be better.
Any other statement of 'back in the 70s....' is just whining. All voices and votes should be heard. So get over it. It is the government's job to do it; they just choose not to.
7
So Republican voter suppression is winning.
This is just one of the more obscene features of conservatism today.
It will be stopped!
9
I am a young voter and most certainly did not want Bernie Sanders, and neither do most other young voters. When asked by pollsters, it's cool and edgy to say you support Bernie and socialism is so hip, Sartre and Foucault were socialists, so cool.
But we're not actually about to turn out and vote for such nonsense. Your polls do not reflect reality.
28
@CJT
So you're saying the silent young voters such as yourself, didn't turn out as much as those that DID want Sanders;
seeing as he still won the younger vote by double digest usually.
Guess they also thought Biden was nonsense too.
Thus the turnout problem continues.
2
@CJT Your comment is really interesting. Whey then is there so much hype about young people following Bernie?
I began my voting habit on my 18th birthday when I registered for the draft and registered to vote.
10
@Marty Interestingly, people who turn 18 the year of a presidential election are much more likely to vote than their 19, 20, and 21 year-old cohorts. So you had a little bit of help. :)
3
Yes, campaigns have to figure out how to help young people register. For example, In 1994, the Cleveland Indians played their first home opener at Jacobs Field. President Clinton threw out the first pitch, & the Indians started 9 years of winning big. They made the playoffs all but once from 1995 to 2001. They had 455 straight sell out games & made the World Series twice.
Winning gets a few players voted onto the All-Star team, but Jacobs field is small & so is the market. So how did they get 3 or 4 players elected year after year?
Somewhere around the 3rd or 4th inning, ushers would hand out All Star ballots AND a pencil to everyone sitting in those sold out seats. Then fans on either side of you would give you 3 choices: A.) Vote a straight party line Indians ballot. B.) Vote for Indians Jim Thome, Roberto Alomar, Omar Vizquel, Kenny Lofton, & future hall of famers on teams other than the Yankees. C.) Hand your ballot to your neighbor so they could vote A or B.
Then the usher would come by an inning later to collect the ballots.
Fast forward to John Kerry's 2004 campaign. Bruce Springsteen came to Cleveland's basketball arena to play a concert on behalf of Kerry. Halfway though, Bruce stopped. The announcer asked fans to go out into the concourse to register to vote. Bruce started a 10 minute guitar riff.
Huh? Where were the ushers to hand out pens and voter registration cards? Of course, few young people got up to fill out cards. And of course, Kerry lost big.
4
“ In addition to stoking interest, a campaign like Sanders’s can educate young voters about the process.”
Given that the author acknowledges youth turnout has been low for the past fifty (!) years, I have a hard time believing that this has not occurred to anyone before. Certainly it should have occurred to the Sanders campaign at some point in the five years he has been running for President.
As someone who reads Twitter regularly, I am struck by the omnipresence of pro-Sanders hashtags, but no practical ones — #MakeAPlanToVote, maybe?
I have also been involved in “resistance” work in San Francisco, and there is way too much interest in protests, which are cathartic, and not nearly enough in basic, boring actions like becoming a precinct captain.
6
Why is the author citing what the Republicans did as he is describing what happened in the Democratic primaries ?
Are the Dems as guilty with their voter suppression tactics after all ?
8
@Norville T. Johnston
Even though it's a Democratic primary, the vote still has to be conducted in accordance with the states' election laws. In the case of Texas, these laws are drafted and voted on by a Republican state house and a Republican state senate and signed into law by a Republican governor. Democrats have absolutely no say.
14
@Eric Looks like plenty of people voted in Texas and I don't hear any of the candidates making the voter suppression claim.
1
When I was a kid in the 70's we would have a mock election with real voting booths every Election Day and our votes would be tabulated an announced. The whole school voted--it was social studies for that day. This was in both NYC public schools and NJ public schools. Has that practice gone away?
I will confess that I missed my first eligible vote between Carter and Reagan due to distraction or apathy or lack of attention and intention. When I complained about the outcome, a fellow class mate told me to "Shut up. If you didn't't vote, you don't get to whine". I never missed another voting day.
17
I don’t believe this article’s explanation for why the youth don’t vote in the number they could and should. The majority of youth just don’t believe pulling a lever can make as much difference as marching somewhere or organizing a community or joining a campaign. The majority honestly don’t believe one vote in a country of 300 million will make the slightest bit of difference and there is no direct incentive to vote so they stay home.
8
“Being young is difficult.” Aw, poor dears. Try being old! My wife was temporarily in a nursing home during the recent primary. I had to go to Town Hall to pick up an absentee-ballot request form, bring it to the home to have her sign it, put it in the mail to the Town Clerk, then when the ballot arrived at home take it to the nursing so she could fill it out, then put it in the mail. The missing Sanders youth vote likes to carry signs and go to rallies (so did I in the ‘60s), but taking the trouble to vote, not a social activity, not so much.
49
@Viv @Eyesopen's comment was primarily about voting (just like this article), yet for some reason you chose to focus on a parenthetical phrase about carrying protest signs.
The main point was that even NOW, not back in the 1960s, eyesopen is willing to go to great effort to be able to help his wife vote, and he's old. If he can expend this much effort at his age, it seems odd that more young people don't vote when less effort than this is necessary in most cases.
The fact that tuition has gotten so expensive, and wages are not keeping up with inflation, is MORE reason young people should make the comparatively small effort required to vote, not less. Comparative in terms of the effort they expend on other things.
6
In my county you can download an absentee ballot application.
@Viv What’s your point? That young people like to complain but don’t bother doing anything about it, like vote?
1
These "youth" are from day one considered prime consumers who are tracked by cell phones many have in their hands by grade school. They are not free to roam and play without constant surveillance by parents, or cell phones, or other government enhanced devices as their baby boomer grandparents or parents once did and now they are relied upon to save the earth. Where are the adults who should be supporting many of this progressive agenda that benefits the youth? That is the question...
6
I don't understand columns like this. One party benefits when the young don't vote. Are you suggesting Republicans abandon their voter suppression efforts because it's the right thing to do? That's like asking Mitch McConnell to crack down on Russian interference. Why on earth would he do that?
Now, if evangelical voters were haivng difficulty voting, that would be a crisis and addressed immediately!
11
Eighteen years ago my wife and I moved to Dupage County in Illinois. We registered to vote as soon as we got there. We studied the ballot. We made sure we had the address of the polling place. On election day we got up early to go vote before going to work.
Turns out, the polling place was in a huge apartment complex that had no street addresses. We drove around for fifteen minutes searching for the polling place. About to give up and go to work, I saw a bunch of cars leaving a laundromat. Thinking that was strange, we drove around to the back of the laundromat and found the polling place.
No signs on the street. No U.S. flag visible from the street. Nothing. You might think that the Republican controlled government of DuPage county didn't really want young renters voting in the election.
And it looks to me that voting has only gotten harder.
22
@rbitset Actually, with every phone having GPS it should be easier. But then young people would need to stop texting long enough to enter the address of the polling place, actually go there, stand in line and vote. That's a lot of missed texting.
10
@M. Casey I'm someone who doesn't have a cellphone. How am I supposed to find a polling place if it's that difficult?
4
@hen3ry
It's not that difficult. Just call (you don't even have to go there) your town hall, ask for the voter registrar or the town clerk or somebody who knows about polling places, and that person will direct the caller where to vote. At least that's the way it is in the NE.
When I got notification that my polling place had changed, I did just that. (I didn't trust the letter not to have been a dirty trick by the goppers.)
2
"It is difficult to get anyone to do anything for the first time, and that’s especially true for voting, which isn’t an easy process in the United States." Actually, more than a few things are irresistible at the first try, and the sad truth is that many youngs who have no trouble navigating an outing to Coachella collapse in inertia because they aren't spoon fed a registration form and ballot.
44
The Youth vote is always missing:
In 1968, the youth vote was very low even though this was a period of large youth activism (I was one of them but I voted for Humphrey)
Had the youth vote been higher, Humphrey would have been elected and the Vietnam War war would have ended much earlier. BTW--More Americans were killed in Vietnam after 1968 than prior to the election of Nixon
In 2000, too many youth voted for Ralph Nader. In Florida, Nader received 95,000 votes and Bush won the state and the election by 537 votes.
Had the youth voted for Al Gore, there would have been no war in Iraq AND GORE WOULD HAVE FOCUSED ON HIS #1 PRIORITY---CLIMATE CHANGE.
Too bad the youth vote let the country down again.
71
@Bill Gordon The 18-20 year old voters could not vote until 1971, so that is one reason the youth vote had less power.
2
@Bill Gordon Thanks for mentioning the Nader disaster. It must be mentioned as much as possible as a warning. I remember very well Nader's dangerous rallying cry of "Bush and Gore are the same" and how so many college students and young professors were duped by it. May we Democrats and young people never fall for that nonsense again!
2
@Bill Gordon
Had 308,000 registered Fla. Dems not voted for Bush, those 95,000 Nader votes (of which were evenly split between D's, R's 'n I's.) wouldn't of mattered. Nor the millions who didn't vote, the SCOTUS, the hanging chads, the voter suppression, the purged voter rolls, the 8+ other 3rd parties that all won over the 537 needed...
But yeah, those darn young people voting for Nader were all to blame.
Sure.
Who let whom down...?
3
When I was young, I voted. Most of my friends voted. My children vote. It seems to me that if young people don't vote it isn't because it is inconvenient. It is because they don't want to participate, or they believe that their participation doesn't count.
7
"If young voters like Sanders so much (and they do; 52 percent have a “very favorable” or “somewhat favorable” view)"
They also have a 30% favorable view of Trump in that poll. There's a 22% difference between their approval for Sanders and their approval for Trump.
In comparison, party affiliation for millenials is 59% Dem/Lean Dem versus 32% Rep/Lean Rep. There's a 27% difference between their affiliation with Sanders' party and their affiliation with Trump's party.
Young people's approval of Sanders underperforms their party affiliation by 5%. Doesn't seem like they really like him as much as their party affiliation would suggest they should.
4
Voting is a privilege most individuals throughout human history have not experienced. If young people can't stay focused enough to register and make the agonizing journey to vote then that's on them and they live with the results. A great many people around the world would crawl over broken glass to be able to vote. This is just a series of excuses.
18
When I was in college, I voted absentee in my home district. Way easier than changing my registration and voting location to my temporary school address.
7
Jamelle Bouie says young people are fighting for control of the Democratic Party, though they’ve done precious little to support it, even finding it difficult to register. And they're being led by a candidate, Bernie Sanders, who has only been a Democrat since 2015, and who became a Democrat then only because he wanted to be president. If the young want to take over the party, they’ll have to learn to work in the trenches, to participate in local politics, to register not just themselves, but other citizens who want to join their party. If young Democrats find it too hard (too “inconvenient”) to register, it’s no wonder their candidate and their ideas lost out this time. They always will lose until the young can muster the energy to campaign and vote.
20
@Bruce Freed Thanks for this reality check. I am member of my district Democrats. Guess who shows up for the evening and weekend meetings? Mostly people over 40. And no one rolled out the red carpet — we showed up because we knew that showing up and doing the grunt work is how change happens, as opposed to just posting about it on social media.
4
This writer says that the Sanders campaign should have given the youth following him civics lessons regarding voting. I think that civics and a general knowledge of how our government works is the last thing Sanders wants his young supporters to understand. If they did, they would see how unrealistic his promises are. They would see what older, more experienced voters see - a cranky old man with valid complaints and no real workable plan to change anything.
60
@Me
"Some men see things as they are, and ask why. I dream of things that never were, and ask why not."
-Robert Kennedy
What kind of country would this be if we only stuck to what was "realistic"? I'm tired of settling for that. Unfortunately, too many older people think like you do, so the future keeps getting put on hold.
25
@J.C. It’s not enough to ask and dream. You have to act, and voting is a necessary action to bring about change. BTW, I was for Bobby Kennedy.
12
Bernie can't remake the educational system but his platform and policy positions have certainly demonstrated great interest and passion among young people. Although an old man he views society as needing a transformation to a more humane, sustainable and inclusive world which works a lot better for the average person. These discussions will bear fruit in future whether or not he is the nominee.
4
In Germany, there is no voter suppression. A few weeks before an election, you automatically get a letter with a voting document by mail, no registration necessary. On election day, you just take that document and your ID (which everyone has, unlike in the U.S.) and take a short walk to the next voting location - I've never had to walk for more than five minutes.
There, someone hands you a paper ballot and you make your choice and it's done. In 23 years of voting, I've never had to wait for more than three minutes.
And yet, even here, the youngest voters' turnout is 20 percentage points lower than that of the oldest voters. The problem is not the process. It's the young people.
118
@GS Same in Canada. The younger voting rate is typically about 20% lower than that of seniors. Voter registration is automatic in Canada, voting stations are everywhere including on campuses (and nursing homes and prisons), the act involves making a single X on the paper ballot. We have about 5-6 main parties. Still, the young will not show up.
11
@GS : that voter ID is why you don't have to register.
You registered permanently WITH THAT ID when you got it.
The left and Dems in the US won't let us have a voting ID -- they claim it is "racist" and that poor blacks and hispanics won't be able to get it -- even if it is FREE.
They oppose voter ID strenuously.
Hmm, I wonder why? because no voter ID means many illegal aliens vote illegally! Ask Hillary!
Registration is how we manage to have even slight control over illegal voting and people voting twice, or other violations.
If we could have voter IDs, all this could be solved easily.
But the left opposes voter IDs very strenuously.
As I understand it, many young people along with other Sanders supporters (self included) are registered as Independents. And can't vote in some primaries unless as a D or R. Indies bit the Dems in the tail in November 2016, we'll see if they do this November. They seem to be utterly clueless as to why they've hemmoraged so many voters, and why so many young voters decline to register as Democratic.
5
@rtj .
There is no advantage in not registering with a party. It's free, incurs no obligation at all, and ensures you can vote in the primary.
There is no official "Independent" party to register with; it's just an absence of affiliation with any entity holding power. Refusing to register is ceding power and gaining nothing.
21
@Naomi
Yes it's called Unenrolled in my state. And Dems left me long ago, I've not been a Dem for 2 decades not and see no benefit whatsoever to being one.
But you're begging the question here. More voters are registered Indy, or unaffiliated if you prefer, than with either of the two parties. Wiser parties might want to understand why that might be. Howard Dean seems to be the only Dem I've heard of who even makes the attempt to understand. Somehow I don't think your argument will get it done.
6
@rtj
If those unaffiliated voters got involved with their local party organization they could help change it. Participation is power. People who refuse to participate --for whatever reason -- are disenfranchising themselves to no purpose.
How I *feel* about the registration is irrelevant. What I *do* with it is what matters.
10
I work at a college. I think this editorial is correct that barriers and lack of education keep young people from voting more than anything else. Good for Jamelle Bouie for this column.
Quite a few disavow that the system works at all and see no need to get involved. It's easy for people who lived through times when the economy worked for more people to look down on young people who don't believe our government is a real, working mechanism. Keep in mind, though, that they were born around 9/11. When have they known life without climate change and war? Two of the three presidents during their lifetimes lost the popular vote. Free public college would go a long way to unburden and empower young people.
14
@E I understand that these are trying times for young people. But when I was a young college student at Stony Brook in the late 70s, there were lingering worries about the draft and the difficulty for campus residents to register to vote locally. Student groups like NYPIRG were active in registering students and getting them to the voting booths, if they were so motivated.
But, that is all in the past. As you say, this is a new generation, with new challenges. They need to rise up to the challenges and get involved, not given a pass. As you note, it is their future, and they can be assured that nobody is going to give them anything. They will have to step up and take it.
10
@Dan88 Actually in my college home town, NYPIRG is doing a great job registering college students. So is my Indivisible group and the Resisterhood and the League of Women Voters.
Admittedly, I have had to push my now 20 year old granddaughters to register , which they finally did at 18. when it came to getting the absentee ballot, however, difficulties arose that might have been due to their giving up. I mean to nag them to death this time around and make sure they get the absentee ballot and vote!
2
@Dan88
"this is a new generation, with new challenges."
The youth turnout has ALWAYS been low regardless of generation. This isn't a boomer vs. millennial thing. When you were young your generation had low turnout too. I see a lot of people responding with "back in my day" anecdotes about how everyone they knew voted. They are completely misreading the editorial.
3
This is a beautifully thoughtful essay.
We can all use the benefit of some strategically considered context. All our lives.
But the minor chord point of young voters suppression as an easy target, is a sad note indeed.
4
Give the young voters an online voting option and they will vote.
4
So fascinating. The everybody gets a medal generation doesn’t understand losing.
But then again, neither does Bernie.
4 more years of trump?
23
@Bill Brasky would you mind explaining yourself here? There are plenty of people who do not understand change, don't like the fact that America is becoming a white minority country and will do anything to stop it.
I was born at the back end of the baby boom generation. Being born after 1954 I've seen how little this country cares about its children, its parents, its prime age working citizens, and now those on the brink of retirement. At every turn some politician(s) votes to make our lives harder. Most of us have not achieved the economic security our parents had. We understand losing all too well.
8
Voting is, in fact, a very easy process in the US. We've always voted in every election, since we were 21 (72 now).
You do have to wake up in the morning, get up from the couch, and maybe even drive a few blocks. True, this is really, really tough!
21
This sounds a lot like a list of lame excuses. If there were long lines, then older people had to wait in line, too. Older people probably did not have polling places next door, either. Yes, you do have to make an effort to vote. But it's really not that difficult. Please stop with the excuses. The proof is in the pudding: younger voters cannot be bothered to vote.
The good news is that they will age and as they do so, vote more. But of course by then, they will be wiser and have realized that Sanders' proposals were a pipe-dream.
31
How could it be a pipe dream if the other countries have it?
Facebook and Snapchat posts don't translate to votes. Just as African-Americans failed to turn out in key battleground states to support Mrs. Clinton, young and far-left people are failing to turn out for Mr. Sanders. So much for the vaunted "Resistance."
8
@Snowball
If you think they didn't turn out for Sanders, wait until Biden runs. That's what you should be more worried about right now.
5
@J.C. And yet the states Biden won have had record turnout.
When I was "young," my friends and I never considered such "obstacles" to voting insurmountable. And being "young" is not that "difficult," relatively speaking. Life typically gets progressively harder as life goes on.
66
Sure, young adults (especially recent generations) don’t function very well, yet. For lots of mundane things (taxes, meeting deadlines, filling out applications, etc.) they often rely on their parents...often through their twenties. But, for example, if they had to get to a sports event or a concert, they’d manage. So it’s fair to ask, “What exactly is their ‘passion’ over Bernie?” Is it shallow? While exciting, do implications on real life still lag? In their youth, do they really feel their vote matters? Is it more fashionable than substantive to root for Bernie. I heard Ocasio Cortez blame it on voter suppression. Ugh. Well, maybe it’s just that “older” voters care more. Have more perspective and maturity. Have a healthier dosage of cynicism over Bernie’s socialist leanings.
16
@Alberto Abrizzi The future belongs to the young and they are the ones who will suffer through the consequences of the older people's choices (they may not have a right to complain but this fact is still true), including both Trump and perhaps Biden.
What Sanders is saying is 100% correct. You may not like his solutions and even his attitude but he has identified the problems correctly and his solutions are a starting point. Someone like ACO seems a lot more pragmatic than Sanders but I think he been tarred with an unfair brush.
You could ask the question you ask about the youth about anyone who is not traditionally smart/intelligent, including the so-called deplorables. Are they voting in a shallow manner as well?
I am 100% invested in democracy and I think every vote counts, including those whose mental function isn't perfect (perhaps even especially those - as someone who is extremely successful and in the 1% I'd say I don't need anyone else's help to "make it" - the less fortunate ones do).
Voting could be made mandatory for a citizen like in Australia. Then I think Sanders policies will come true. So then, will the Republicans and Democrats allow a law like this?
6
That was a quality exchange. Thank you.
We shouldn't make voting so easy that its like voting for your high school prom king and queen. If you make voting as easy as buying a Starbucks coffee, you'll devalue it. Even getting a drivers license requires similar effort plus a test to boot!
Having to go thru the trivial trial and tribulations of registering to vote is not the problem. Rather, it should be harder. Voting should be done with due consideration as a serious responsibility. Perhaps, even a passing grade on a civics test should be required. After all, how can you vote if you don't understand our democracy and what your even voting for (warts and all). Making the right to vote a little harder would provide a personal reminder that rights have a cost..and a responsibility to maintain said right .
3
@Al Morgan I don't agree - that is not a democracy, that is more of a meritocracy. In a democracy, everyone should have a say. What you're proposing is a rule (tyranny) of some elites who think they have some knowledge and intelligence who will decide for everyone else - that is a very sanctimonious view.
I even think the voting age is too high.
The people who are smart and intelligent aren't the ones who need government really to help them. The ones who do are the least fortunate and least equipped among us.
The only way I'd agree to your proposal is we had only people like the Dalai Lama voting. And we don't. So I'd rather trust someone who doesn't how our democracy works than someone who does know it but then uses it to increase their power and success and shutout the least fortunate among us.
4
Rather than a civics test for would-be voters, how about a civics test for presidential candidates? Just think how much trouble that would have saved us....
@Al Morgan
If you make it hard to vote, you don't have a democracy. Period.
People commenting here keep mentioning that high schools should teach civics courses. I thought they were mandatory in every public school. When did that stop? I remember what I learned in mine during the JFK Presidency very well to this day.
8
During the caucuses, neither Iowa State nor the University of Iowa (both together have maybe 50,000 undergraduates) gave students the day off from class to participate in the caucuses. Granted, the caucusing usually takes place in the evening, but consider how much students are being asked to balance already, especially if they are athletes. If it's about time management skills, that too is something that older adults have developed more so than young voters. If students are skipping meals (as my friends and peers did) to study, then they are WELL past the point of skipping the ballot box.
I don't want to neglect all the folks who are not going to college, of course. The point is that something in our culture is pressuring young people to perform and "seize opportunity," so much so that we neglect our other responsibilities, in addition to foregoing the incredible opportunity that is having a say in the political process. If it is an issue of apathy or disinterest, I certainly agree that we must take a broader view and investigate how exactly we are raising young people; it's not a failure of individuals, but of education.
2
Sorry, but most of the problems that Mr. Bouie cites here are barely worth mentioning. Registration is difficult? C'mon! Does such a requirement make it less likely that they'll ever buy an automobile? You'd think that Sanders' offering free tuition and debt relief for college students would provide the necessary incentive, but perhaps not. If you want to see young Americans run to the polls propose bringing back the draft- at least during wartime (which is pretty much ALL the time these days).
17
I wish this was true but I fear it isn’t.
I’m a Bernie supporter (since Warren dropped out) and the enthusiasm for Bernie among the majority of young people I know is very high. But if young people in general aren’t turning out in record numbers for Bernie, how do we explain that young people DID turn out in record numbers for Obama in 2008?
16
@Marc one reason is that a lot of voter laws were put in place and tightened up after obama was elected. coming from texas where that was definitely the case.
I really don’t get why Bernie’s young supporters didn’t bother to get out and vote for him. Those 18 and up figure out on line via Google, Alexa, Siri etc. how to do everything and anything you can think of. So I don’t buy that it’s “too complicated.”
A few words of advice to caring young parents: take your kids to the polls when you vote and explain why you do it. We did that with our two kids and they couldn’t wait to register and cast their first ballots. I was thrilled to watch a few years ago when my adult daughter, with her baby son strapped to her chest, disappeared into the voting booth with him for the first time. I’d wager he’ll be a regular, engaged voter when the time comes.
24
Agree with all your comments on voter suppression BUT you're giving the kids too much of a "pass". Don't they have friends, parents, GRANDPARENTS who can talk to them about registration (which is not that hard) and then take them to vote?? They could all spend 10 minutes on the internet and find out all they need to know. After all, they don't seem to have the same motivational problem obtaining a driver's license!
7
It really is a shame that the United States is the only democracy in the world where each year it actually becomes increasingly more difficult to vote (we're also the only democracy in the world where getting the most votes doesn't lead to victory, so maybe we're not much of a democracy at all).
But I'm not buying the argument I hear from many Sanders supporters about structural hardships being to blame for low youth turnout. And I say this as someone who has supported Sanders since 2016. The obstacles to voting aren't new or little-known. They're shameful deficiencies that we're reminded of every election (and which the Democrats are inexplicably not up in arms about, given that they're the most affected - but such is the Democratic party's terminal timidity). The Sanders campaign should've had a plan to tackle this obstacle; the fact that it didn't doesn't speak well of Bernie, to be honest.
4
On a scale of lying and corruption Trump is a 10. However, Biden is a 7-8. I am willing to vote for a 7-8 over a 10 but not unconditionally. I believe the solution is coalition politics. The progressive wing of the Democratic party, led by Bernie, should organize transparent open negotiations with Biden about policy priorities, VP selection, cabinet positions, etc. Unless a minimum set of demands from the left are agreed to, Bernie should advise his followers to sit out the election. In parliamentary democracies this is called building a governing coalition. If we on the left agree to support Biden, or any "moderate", unconditionally then we complete relinquish our power. It is the only way to achieve progress for poor and working people in America.
7
@Eric
The problem is too that you'd have to trust that Biden would actually follow through on the concessions and platform hammered out with the progressive wing. Especially if he's looking to be a one term president. Never for a minute did I ever believe Clinton would, and I don't for a minute believe Uncle Joe would either.
Put it this way - the Democratic brass and voters made it perfectly clear that they preferred to shoot for Republican- and R-leaner voters over progressives. And yet somehow they still think they're entitled to our votes for free.
Only a choice of Warren for VP might convince me the Dems are serious about working for progressive reforms. And there's no way the party will ever let that happen.
5
@rtj You are certainly correct. The only way I can think of to put teeth in the agreements between progressives and centrists is to be more aggressive in future elections with denying our support if centrists renege on their agreements -- perhaps this could be done in the midterms. Maybe there are more formal ways to enforce compliance. Any ideas are welcome.
5
@Eric Your solution, not voting, will ensure that Trump remains in power.
5
Not only should the importance of voter participation be taught in our high schools, but for all students who've reached the age of 18, proof of voter registration should be a requirement for graduation. No registration, no diploma. Period.
5
@Frank F, that's a good idea. But it won't happen. OI registered to vote when I was in college. I couldn't vote in the 1976 election because my birthday was about 2 weeks after Election Day. There was a voter registration drive on my college campus. If not for that I might not have voted in 1980 presidential election. Now these sorts of drives are looked upon with such suspicion that I doubt one would be allowed on a college campus or, if it was, someone would find a way to end it. Such is the state of our democracy.
3
The best way to get people to vote is to organize a way to transport them to the polls.
This should include a paid day off for everyone who votes and shows proof.
And schools can suspend classes for a day and encourage groups of students to go together to the polls.
4
I think it’s also voter suppression in college towns and communities with large Latinx populations. That explains why there were very long lines in Texas, Michigan, and California.
19
@Zareen The situation with long lines in Michigan was NOT with polling places but with same-day REGISTRATION. This is the first time that Michigan had same-day registration. That could only be done at the county clerk's offices since they are the only ones with the computer system needed to register people.
It's a more complicated process and takes longer per person. So it was not the polling places, but the fact that there is only ONE county clerk's office per county. They don't take on extra staff since it's an office with regular government employees trained in their system, including the computer system. I believe they are unionized.
This is not due to voter suppression at all. Regular poll workers are trained to do only one fairly simple thing. There are no computer systems at the regular polls to register voters since these are in diverse places, not gov't places. I do believe there is voter suppression, and think it's shameful. This isn't the case here, though.
Here's hoping that people register to vote by mail, where their forms will be handled by the same clerk's offices, but that takes more lead time.
A person can get absentee ballots by mail and register at the same time, but again, that takes more lead time. That's the solution to long lines. Michigan just made it law that anyone of any age and ability can vote absentee. Mainly to make it easy for the young to vote. Not voter suppression. Just the opposite.
8
Lot's of excuses for young people's voter apathy. Here is another one, the candidates are all old, Bernie 78, Biden 77, Trump 73. Perhaps if there were more young people running, more young people would vote.
4
@Joseph B Nope - that is voter choice. The Democratic primary had many candidates with a wide age range and for some strange reason, the Ancient Ones prevailed. Which makes me sad; both Biden and Sanders are too old for the office. Scary that DJT will be the younger of the two main candidates running.
3
@Joseph B I suspect that even Buttigieg was too close to AARP-eligibility for some of these kids.
1
“It’s not that young people are disengaged, it’s not that they don’t care about the issues at hand; it’s just that they really struggle to follow through...”
Please stop.
Bernie was a dream candidate for young people - he's been around, attracting them, for what - like six years now - in presidential politics...? When do we expect another Bernie to come along?
One of the reasons young people don't vote is the same as the reasons they don't do other things they should do - because there is never a shortage of older people - like the author - who never tire of immediately providing excuses for them...there's a difference between explaining something and explaining something away.
Progressives are saying they're tired of hearing, "maybe next time." The reason it's always "maybe next time" is because of the progressive base.
I'm going to wait until an actual young non-voter writes a piece explaining why he/she did not vote...had my fill of hearing from older people who want to jump in and make excuses for them.
83
@achilli,
The writer is trying to figure out why the young turnout was low.
I see analysis, not excuses.
What’s your solution?
@achilli Well, here’s a piece from NY Magazine in 2016 with interviews from young people who didn’t vote. Their reasons are about what you’d expect.
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/10/12-young-people-on-why-they-probably-wont-vote.html
2
@achilli
Great comment.
Yes, it’s amazing how they refuse to accept responsibility; it’s always someone else’s fault.
3
I don't get it. Young people have the most at stake. The main reason I vote is that I care about them.
17
@Distraught It appears that they don't care about you...
1
As an old Sanders supporter, I was always skeptical of his campaign strategy of turning out millions of young voters. Many young people aren't even registered to vote. Or they don't know where their polling place is. Many college students are unsure whether they should vote where they go to school or where they grew up.
At this point, I hope that Sanders, Warren, Sherrod Brown, AOC, Stacy Abrams, et al. continue building a progressive movement that will one day change the sclerotic, middle-of-the-road Democratic Party. 2024 can't come soon enough!
7
"They don’t think they know enough . . ."
Very perceptive. Young people have been denied access to our country's history for two generations now. For political reasons, textbooks have been dumbed down, teachers have been intimidated, and truth has been discarded.
Americans young and old are hungry for knowledge of the past. Television shows like the Civil War series by Ken Burns and the John Adams series on HBO drew huge audiences, so why not show them to school kids? (And show them again for young adults.)
There are many possibilities, as a quick Google search will demonstrate. If young people learn some American history, they'll be eager to vote. Better to watch a well-written (based on McCullough) and well-produced (Tom Hanks) and well-acted (Paul Giamatti) television series than listen to a teacher struggle with the same material.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Adams_(miniseries)
4
Anyone who has studied history knows the youth vote is unreliable. It always has been and very likely, always will be. I don't say that as some entitled Boomer (I am Gen X) - I saw that as a realist and trained historian.
If your campaign strategy relies solely on the youth, you are likely going to lose. You MUST engage all population segments in some way - include ALL demographics.
25
@Eva No need for a gratuitous swipe at Boomers. Many boomers fought for voting rights when it was dangerous to do so. I knew some of them.
Many boomers care so much about voting because of their children and grandchildren.
You could make your case just as easily without that. My guess is that the bad-mouthing boomer vibe has its roots in the Russian attempts to put barriers between people and disrupt the elections.
4
@Eva
Bernie's campaign strategy didn't rely solely on youth.
2
Voting is a lot less appealing if you're not yet a permanent taxpaying member of a community, haven't followed a lot of the local issues and people on the ballot, maybe don't have good transportation, are working 1-2 low-pay jobs, or have studies or tests coming up. At least two of these things are typical of anyone from around age 18-30. They certainly were for me during the 2000s.
9
@JS Here is a good website that people should know about. https://www.vote.org/absentee-ballot-deadlines/
It shows info for different states absentee or vote by mail. You can click on the link for your state and you'll get the application for an absentee ballot.
The main page of the site also makes it easy to follow the steps to register to vote.
Many of the young Sanders supporters are relatively transient. Not all are in college or newly hired graduates. Housing is expensive in the cities & large towns they favor resulting in some degree of rootlessness.
Those coming from conservative home backgrounds have often been shamed by parents for 'parroting' left wing views. Even worse, inconsistent & tenuous political views result in put-downs from associates & contacts with a firmer, yet accusatory manner.
Patience & kindness go a long way toward motivating the young to vote.
4
@Apple Jack
They are not just shamed by parents. They are the easiest group to influence into *not* doing something when you make them feel bad about themselves and their views.They're the most gullible generation to social pressures and social cues.
When reputable papers like the NYT, the cable news channels, etc. run literally *hundreds* of editorials full of hysteria about how Bernie and his platform is a disaster for America, people believe it. They wouldn't spend this much effort to push narratives if it wasn't effective on people.
Since there is no Jon Stewart on tv any more, and Stephen Colbert has turned into a dumbed down clown, no late night comedian does in-depth analysis of candidates running.
They all go for the lame, superficial SNL-style jokes written by people who don't explain and don't care to explain each candidate's positions.
1
When one party threatens the whole world with anger and crazy, turnout will be up across the board.
Part of the issue may be that most voting happens during the school year when a lot of kids are scheduled up to their eyeballs or have an upcoming exam they fretting. Moving the vote to a weekend or during summer or winter break might help.
2
Here is another possibility, maybe the ones who supported Bernie or his ideas did show up and voted as did those who don't care about him. The rest probably don't care either way.
It also remains to be seen if these Bernie voters remain liberal voters as they age or if they will tilt moderate.
5
How many high school civics classes explain the ins and outs of voting? Do any colleges have a quick required seminar for those without such class credits?
If young people know what the process is, and understand more about what low turn out means in election results, they might be more motivated.
It's been a long time, but none of these subjects were covered in my high school or college courses.
5
@Cayce Jones
Have they resumed teaching Civics in high schools again? After the 2016 election, I spent many hours teaching basic Civics to Indivisible groups online. Apparently it's no longer part of the curriculum in a lot of schools.
7
@Cayce Jones Every state has its own election rules. One thing I discovered in the 2019 election is that there were a large number of mailed absentee ballots that arrived too late to be counted. Ballots in Virginia have to arrive by 7 pm of election day to be counted, and in Fairfax County 14% of the mailed ballots that were received came in too late. Many of the late ballots were from voters 18-25,a greater percentage of absentee voters in that age group than all other age groups.
With a Democratic majority in the Virginia House and Senate, this year legislation was passed to count votes that are postmarked by election day and arrive at the local election board by noon three days after election day. That's what can happen when you can call attention to a problem.
1
Youth voting in raw numbers is up in many states, but voting rates among older voters are up astronomically. As a very politically engaged person in the 18-29 bracket (I'm a coordinator in Sunrise Movement), it is upsetting that the youth aren't running over hot coals to elect Bernie in sufficient numbers. The progressive agenda is popular across the board, but perceived electability is ruling the day.
I've had a number of conversations with older relatives about the need for Medicare for All and a Green New Deal. My relative will basically argue "George McGovern." I'll counter with "Walter Mondale" or "Canada." The generation gap with Democrats is enormous.
It's a shame that Biden will almost definitely be the nominee. The past few days have shown the US is incapable of dealing with crisis thanks to mismanagement from Republicans and centrist Democrats. With a pandemic and recession looming, Bernie's ideas don't seem too radical anymore.
9
A good deal of excuses but simply, perhaps the polls indicating young peoples' preference for Bernie were a bit off? Or a good deal off? Perhaps it's a bit like asking travelers if they prefer coach or first class.
10
I was thrilled to vote for the first time in 1972 in the army by absentee ballot. Yes there are obstacles but you really have to want to do it.
24
I've been an election judge in Texas for several years and must take issue with the comment that places that weren't early voting locations couldn't be a polling location. This is blatantly untrue. I tend to run a polling place at a local high school where I also work. I promise you it's not an early voting location but it's been open for election days during general elections and primaries the last couple of years.
4
In 2005 Estonia became the first country to offer Internet voting, and in the 2019 parliamentary elections almost 44% of participants voted online. (There have been plenty of challenges, and improvements, over the years, and today Estonia is recognized as the world leader in e-governance.)
When this becomes more the norm in the United States (beyond a few thousand overseas military personnel now voting in elections), the youth vote will almost certainly go up.
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@Dwight
Internet voting sounds like a terribly dicey idea to me for obvious reasons, but I surely do love our postage-free mail-in ballots here in WA State.
5
@Dwight Until the voting system in Estonia gets hacked. Can you imagine the chaos that would ensue here if we had a hacking problem? ...
4
Let’s stop searching out reasons (excuses) why young people don’t vote. Despite all of the indefensible hurdles to voting that many states have put in place, it ultimately is not a difficult exercise at all. I certainly encourage all young people to vote - please vote! - but if the youth do not exercise their franchise, that is ultimately their choice - and it is they that will suffer the consequences.
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Education is definitely needed. I'm sure a lot of 18-20 somethings don't know where their polling place is.
They also may have little control over their work schedule and no car. No car makes it hard to get to the polls, and if they have no driver's license, they may also have no state ID.
Massive publicity about websites to find your polling place and hours, and about vote by mail options. Making Election Day a holiday is a great idea.
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@Oh Please "I'm sure a lot of 18-20 somethings don't know where their polling place is."
Ummm, don't they get a sample ballot with the location listed prominently? Can't they look if up at their local Registrar's website, using their generatino's vaunted tech-savy?
Oh please ...
If there's a will there's a way.
2
And so is vote by mail if it is available in your state. No need to know where your polling place is located. No need for a voting day holiday. No need to take time from work.
2
Vote in person, absentee vote.... there are so many options to assuage all of the excuses. The youth have no excuse, they just don't vote. They love talking the big talk but they just don't show up to vote, full stop.
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Structure? "It is difficult to get anyone to do anything for the first time, and that it’s especially true for voting"? Not buying it. As the author points out, the youth vote has always been feeble. Young people simply seem to have more important things to do than vote. The extraordinary thing is that Sanders (apparently) believed that somehow it would be different this time.
27
@Lotzapappa Good comment. Every older voter was young at some point. They had to vote for the first time sometime. Is it harder to do something new when you're younger? My experience is quite the opposite.
16
I would be curious to know how many of the young Bernie supporters who are saying that they'll only vote for Bernie actually voted in a primary. The louder most inflexible voices might not necessarily be those of actual voters.
16
Civics education! Want to see a really good high school text book? Look at Government in Action, by Keohane, Keohane, and McGoldrick, first published by Harcourt Brace and Company back in 1937. The growth of government with Alice in Wonderland and Ben Franklin's autobiography, the description of "Jerry", a patronage precinct captain in Chicago and more. I never met McGoldrick, who was controller of the city of New York when LaGuardia was mayor, but I knew my parents pretty well, and I grew up on that book. It's a template for the kind of high school government
text which we could make excellent use of today.
2
I’m 68 years old and will likely vote by absentee ballot if the Coronavirus is still a threat this November 3rd. If so, younger people, with their immune systems so strong, may well suddenly outnumber proportionately us Boomers at the polls.
3
I also wonder about the messaging in the home, if any. The election in 1972 was the 1st when 18 year olds could vote, but it was also my 1st presidential election to vote. I was 23 - and I voted. A good part of why I voted is that my parents always voted in any election that came along - local, primary, national. Sometimes they took us to the polls and into the voting booth with them. They communicated both the privilege and the responsibility of voting as American citizens. Voter turnout in this country is below poor, so likely many of those youth have parents to rarely or only occasionally vote. What message do they receive in that?
Then, too, there is the frequent media message that only some groups or states really matter in this or that election. Why would a 20-something in Illinois bother to take the time when the message is that folks in Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan will really decide the election anyway?
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@Anne-Marie Hislop
I have seen many websites that explain how to vote. Are any of them aimed at younger voters?
The solution to the second paragraph is to abolish the Electoral College. Then the role of states in voting for president would cease to exist, because all voters in all states would count, and with the latter it would no longer make any sense to speak of swing states.
5
@Dov Todd Ain't gonna happen. Less populated states will never give up their inherent advantage in national elections. Last I checked, you still need 3/4 of the states to agree to this change.
3
@Dov Todd
Agreed that the EC is a problem, still the constant messages about whose vote will "count" does not help.
4
I would like to suggest another reason, namely that many Sanders voters do not honestly believe that his promises have a realistic chance of being in acted. For older Sanders enthusiasts, voting for Bernie is about a commitment to left wing ideology. It is ntheir bones. But many young people do not have a strong sense of personal identity, let alone ideology. They like the idea of free college education. Most probably think it won’t actually happen, for very good practical reasons. So why bother to vote?
4
@carl mosk
I think anyone who knows how the legislative process works does not honestly believe that any candidate's proposals have a realistic chance, but the key is knowing how the process works. My thought is that a lot of young supporters HOPE that his platform has a chance. I can't fathom why they didn't turn out more strongly, but one would think they'd at least try to help Bernie have a shot at it! I like the idea of free public college education too; it was free when I was of college age.
2
I’m not sure of how to best do this, but we need to agree nationwide to certain values by 75 percent of the polity.
Our politicians can then argue and prove the methodology, but ultimate goals are important to achieve and there needs to be a scheduled due process for results.
If we as a nation regardless of party agreed that we want all young people to register and vote, then we can brainstorm and test out solutions by state or nationally. Thus national referendums on naked ethical values and morals that we want to actualize and enforce.
Do we want to encourage and facilitate all young people to register and vote in National and their state elections?
( word it for clarity of value. expect clever lawyers/consultants/media masters/politicians to attempt to confound and pervert it)
(If we require that all (both male and female eventually) 18 to 26 year old citizens must register with the Selective Service, then register them to vote during that process. Then we need to decide for those away from home at college, what is their address: home vs college. Solutions are not impossible nor necessarily need to become partisan ( wishful thinking?!).)
1
easier yet. when state IDs are issued and upon the 18th birthday of those already issued, then automatically register people to vote.
give them a choice of party in person and if they don't choose register them as independent. let them change it if they want.
MAKE THEM OPT OUT.
8
Strangely enough, Sanders seems to do his best when voter turnout is low. This is especially true of caucus states, which typically attract a much lower turn out than traditional primaries. Compare turnout from Washington in 2020 to Washington in 2016. Compare Minnesota in 2020 to Minnesota in 2016. Leaving caucuses behind has significantly boosted turnout, and it has benefitted Biden.
It might be why Sanders' surrogates are up and down on social media, bemoaning that caucuses aren't as big of a factor as they were four years ago. The Sanders campaign seems to directly benefit from voter suppression.
8
I think what you're actually seeing is that the more politically engaged voters tend to go more heavily for Sanders. Caucuses generally require a bigger investment of time and historically tended to get smaller but more politically aware and active voters.
8
@Mary Sweeney
I'm not sure if I agree with that assessment. I think while, sure, caucuses will likely skew toward a candidates' most passionate and fervent supporters, they are restrictive. For your average American to be able to spend multiple hours at a high school gymnasium on a school night / work night is a tall order, and I think its safe to say that there is likely a class disparity that presents itself in caucuses.
Passion is important, but that shouldn't be a bar that prevents Americans from becoming involved in the process.
21
the fly in your argument is the escalated turnout in the primary states....mostly going to Biden...
Really? Lots of rationalizing here. They’d stand in line for a new phone, or concert tickets. Face it. Politics just isn’t fun for the kids. It will be when they own something.
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@Buttercup - But without any meaningful political outreach, they won't be able to own anything. See the dilemma?
It's not about the lack of "fun"; it's about the lack of feeling any real sense of inclusion in a society you can't afford to join.
19
If they don’t get interested in voting, they may never own anything. Income inequality is just going to keep getting worse if we don’t get progressives in office.
8
@Buttercup
P.S. I never stood in line for concert tickets or a new album. I stood in line to vote. There were lots like me.
28
As someone who's voted in every election since I turned 18, this is something that still confounds me and I don't think it's because of the "barriers" the article mentions. I suppose they do exist, but they aren't insurmountable and voting at the most basic level is a commitment of a few hours every 4 years.
I think there's less peer pressure in that age demographic to vote, and plenty of reinforcement in that their peers aren't voting either. That little "I voted" sticker can be contagious sometimes.
I feel like older voters face their own set of issues, but apparently they are more determined to overcome them.
Either way, the youth vote makes for an appealing target for politicians, even if it's rather elusive.
17
you skip that "older" voters have more skin in the game. earned through life experience, property ownership or the desire to own property, having kids to look after and plan for, looking at retirement..etc
most 18-25 year olds don't feel they have that much skin in any election and suppress interest and motivation
1
This conflates two completely different issues: Active voter suppression from ensconced power and passive laziness on the part of the non-voting youth. The former is an assault on the foundations of our democratic republic and should be identified and rooted out in all instances. The latter is nobody's problem to fix but the actual non-voters. If they aren't confident that they know enough about the issues, they can make the effort to learn. Likewise, they can take the time to find out what is required to cast a vote. Self government requires participation by people who want to self govern. Other people can't be force that realization on them.
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@Jon,
Not force, but convince.
There are many ways to encourage people to vote, and to make it easier.
Scolding won’t do it.
1
We do definitely need civics education in high schools as a requirement. I believe that the reason Sanders has so much support among the youngest voters is because he promises them the moon and they believe him. If they knew how hard it would be, realistically, to get anything near what Sanders proposes into law, I don't think they would be so overwhelmingly supportive of his candidacy. He is just running a scam: Focus on the young and unschooled in civics, promise them relief from the problems that are vexing them the most, yell and scream and blame the mythical "establishment" for all their ills.
If Bernie isn't part of the "establishment" I don't know who is. He has been in politics for 40 years. I think he means "Democrats". He isn't one, he has no intention of becoming one. He has just been using us for financial and media support. He has been demonizing us Democrats for 40 years, but takes a year off for when he campaigns for president on the Democratic ticket. And he returns the favor by attacking the nominee when he loses.
Get out, Sanders. Get off my lawn.
180
@Charles E - I can do without the moon, but how about we take that 1.5 trillion dollars that Trump and the 'nuch are planning to shovel into the stock market and we use it to cancel nearly all of the student debt? How is it that these astronomical funds are so readily available, but somehow we can't invest in proven economic force multipliers like education?
Nah, let's just keep giving massive tax cuts to the already very wealthy while pretending that the working poor simply don't exist.
The "establishment"--whether of the right or the center--has indeed failed miserably, and we're in for another round of horrors if President Biden gains the WH and simply continues in the Clinton/Obama neoliberal vein.
The new generation gap is quite real, and is potentially more catastrophic than anything we saw in the 1960s when material security was far more widespread and showed comforting signs of continued expansion.
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@Charles E First, sorry but the "establishment" is not mythical. It's the nexus of political power and moneyed interests that have inordinate power in our country. It's not particularly difficult to see how this works in practice. Second, Bernie is an independent, but because of our two-party system he has to run as a Democrat in presidential elections. This is a real problem with our electoral system. Note that he frequently votes with the Democrats in the Senate. I'm not sure what you mean by "media support" from the Democrats, since his ideas are generally framed negatively in Democratic-supported media as has been very apparent during the primaries. Third, Bernie is trying to expand the horizon of possibilities in our politics. This is a positive development since we've been schooled to believe that virtually nothing is possible and that only incremental reforms are "serious" and "worthy of consideration." The scam is that people accept these limitations as unalterable. Lastly, stop the false narrative that Bernie didn't support Clinton when he lost. He challenged her in the primary, then when he lost he did 39 rallies in the final 2 months, often facing hostility from his own supporters. You are simply peddling misinformation on this issue. It's not "demonising" Democrats, it's trying to push the party back to the progressivism of FDR and LBJ. That's a worthy endeavour.
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@Charles
Who needs Sanders ideas, especially in the middle of a viral pandemic when drugs and medical care will be difficult to access for those with lousy insurance.
7
It should be noted that the number of young people voting isn't down compared to most years, it's actually up somewhat since 2016. It's just that the turnout of older people is *way* up, so that caused the percentage of young voters to be lower than 2016. As usual, much of the media is innumerate and does not understand the difference between percentages and absolute numbers of people.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/democratic-primary-youth-vote-2020_n_5e6a8a73c5b6747ef1195db0
37
@Andrew - yeah, turnout among older people is way up...and for good reason. This election is make-or-break for America.
If young people are turning out this year in numbers only very slightly higher than they have in other presidential elections, can you imagine if this was just a normal presidential election? We'd see maybe 10% turnout among the young. Maybe.
1
@Andrew
They only looked at data from a handful of college towns in three states, and the rest of the article is just more excuses, any of which could apply to the other age cohorts.
And the point was never that youth voting is down; it’s that the prediction of a “surge” was hilariously wrong.
2
@achilli " yeah, turnout among older people is way up...and for good reason. This election is make-or-break for America."
This is just laughable. Trump is bad, but we could easily survive four more year of him (and almost certainly will!).
The old person obsession with 'electability' and their lemming-like support of Biden comes entirely from Trump derangement syndrome. These people, who only take in MSM, have been so thoroughly frightened and sold into Maddow-Russia conspiracy theories that they're flooding the polls to vote for a demented sock puppet.
The results will not be pretty.
Oh, we’ve found the explanation; voting is “difficult” in the US. Just compare voting in the US with the experience of people coming from abroad and you will see how ridiculous this idea is. You want to talk about “voter suppression” ? In some countries that means risking your job or even your life if you vote the “wrong” way. Why do you imagine that spoiled young people who refuse to read a history book to see what “socialism” actually means would be willing to go out of their way even an inch to actually vote ?
25
First, I'll say that I really respect Bouie, and I thank him for being pretty much the only opinion columnist who has anything favorable to say about Bernie Sanders. He's a breath of fresh air when one considers the Kristof-Goldberg-Brooks-Leonhardt-Bruni-Collins-Krugman-Dowd-Egan-Friedman-Stephens echo chamber.
Here though, I think Bouie is being too deferential to the youth. Two ideas can be simultaneously true. It is true that there are unnecessary and undemocratic barriers to voting. For example, why do we get a day off for honoring dead presidents but not for selecting a new president? But it's also true that apathy among the young is a problem. "Both sides are terrible" is a refrain I hear all too often among my peers, even if they might be supportive of individual left-leaning ideas such as Medicare for All or tuition free college.
Re: “It’s not that young people are disengaged, it’s not that they don’t care about the issues at hand; it’s just that they really struggle to follow through”
Well, I'm sorry, but following through is a part of political action. It's not enough to share a Tweet or make a snarky meme. One must vote, and young people don't. Maybe I can understand if an 18-year-old doesn't vote because he is sorting out and navigating the confusing political landscape. But older millennials have seen multiple election cycles by now, and really have no excuse to let the struggles of adulthood get in the way of voting, as suggested by Holbein in this column.
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@Vince Re: “It’s not that young people are disengaged, it’s not that they don’t care about the issues at hand; it’s just that they really struggle to follow through”
Thanks for your comment in response. That sentence struck me as being totally off-base as well.
Guess what—all of life is a struggle in one way or another. Young people had better get used to it. Voting is one way to influence the course of future events.
30
@Vince
Why don’t we turn Presidents’ Day into a commemoration for past and future presidents, by making it Election Day, as well? Having our elections on a holiday certainly should increase voter turnout. Of course, if you’re a member of a paRty that doesn’t want a more representative turnout, you won’t like this suggestion at all.
7
@Vince
Older Millennials are in their 30s, and we turned out for Obama in 2008 in record numbers. This is on the Zoomers.
1
I was in college in 2008 when Obama was elected. People were over the moon, especially after 8 years of Dubya disgracing the country. Obama's victory seemed to be a validation of the American political system's resilience, a return to statesmanship.
Then he invited Wall St. to run his economic policy. And the Republicans and Blue-Dog dems watered the ACA down into a giant mess. And the middle east continued to combust.
So now my cohort is both more screwed than ever and disillusioned.
219
@KM My first vote was for President Kennedy, and I have voted for every Democratic candidate for the presidency since that time. All those who were elected disappointed me in some way. But any informed and reasonable person who does not see the difference between the Democratic and Republican presidents between 1960 and now isn't paying attention. I know it is terribly trite and not at all amazing to urge that when the perfect becomes the enemy of the sort of good you get TRUMP
166
When you are struggling just to scrape enough money up to live on year after year, and nothing ever changes, it’s hard to continue to have faith. Obama was supposed to help us but he bailed out the banks, not the people.
29
@KM You say that word "Then". Both things can be true - he wasn't your perfect president *and still* he was "a return to statesmanship". In fact, if he is *your* perfect president, he almost certainly wouldn't be mine - and I'm probably at least as far left as you. Don't we criticize Trump for only representing an increasingly narrow section of the population? Don't we want a president to work for ALL of us, within reason?
I'm younger than you are (I started college in 2009) and I was too young in fact to vote for him the first time around. I really don't get the anti-Obama strain among young folks today. Perhaps young voters - dare I say, today's young voters in particular? - have not enough experience with compromise in their lives to recognize good politics. That doesn't just happen in DC; any workplace or relationship has similar kinds of negotiation and positioning as well. How do I get you to do what I want and feel good about it?
The Democrats have been getting steamrolled a lot in the last... 25 years? But the only thing in my - still limited - experience that works less well than what they have been getting done (ACA etc) is insisting that lots of people who disagree do exactly what you want or else (the implicit question "or else what" that follows has no answer, there's nothing). Get whatever you can passed by whatever means works. Sitting there with arms crossed insisting you're right as the Republicans eat this country alive is worse than useless.
50
Bernie was selling Santa goodies and the young smarties finally figured out there is no Santa.
20
@Jerry Davenport Every other first-world country has "goodies" like paid vacation and medical leave, universal healthcare, and free public college. Including Canada. So why should the US be different?
67
Because the billionaires need more tax cuts. Otherwise they might have to sell a yacht.
13
@KM So there’s the motivation to get out the vote and yet ...?
1
Why don’t young people vote? Or to ask a broader question, are there any stumbling blocks to voting that might deter young voters or, for that matter, racial minorities from voting?
Well, for starters, a lot of states have proactively discouraged voting and, instead of facilitating voter turnout like mail in voting, have created artificial barriers to voting. In some states like in the South there are variants of illegal poll taxes that discourage voters. Other
states like Arizona have closed voting locations. Consider what Arizona did in 2016 — that is, for purported budgetary reasons closing hundreds of voting locations with the result that voters stood in line for five hours waiting to vote. How many voters want to spend five hours in line waiting to vote?
Then, there are other states like Wisconsin, under Republican control, who, for the quirkiest reasons like a missed initial on a registration form, kicked tens of thousands of otherwise eligible voters off of registered voter lists. Consider Florida, which despite a recent amendment to allow felons (which meant many hundreds of thousands of blacks) to vote, the Republican legislature and Republican Governor Scott enacted “poll tax” like fine requirements barring felons from voting.
Contrast these voting impediments to voting to Chicago, where back in the day of Mayor Richard Daley, voting “early and often” was encouraged.
14
I don't think that political apathy is the issue: look at the marches and the online activity. I don't think that obstacles are too much: voting really isn't hard. I certainly did it at 18, as did every other young person I knew.
The "problem"? Young voters don't see the vote as powerful compared to other pathways. Many might see a strong Instagram presence as having more impact. Some are re-imagining social entrepreneurship. The rise in intentional living communities offers meaning.
Voting is my preferred mechanism, and I am teaching my kids to vote. But I recognize that there are other ways to express power, and I applaud that exploration.
10
Young people are not getting driver’s licenses because they cannot afford cars or the insurance & other expenses and that is one of the easier ways to get registered to vote b our state.
Every adult should be able to vote without jumping through hoops or missing work. There is less voter fraud than that committed to keep people from voting. It’s easier to get a gun license than to register to vote in some states and that is the true crime.
26
@Dog Walker
Fair enough - but I had a license as soon as I could legally get it (17), and my first car at 36. I learned how to drive in high school health class and driving on my learner's permit with my father (= no expense).
I don't know if things have changed since, but I don't see that as being a true block.
2
In states like Texas, young people who don't need a driver's license because they can't afford the cost of owning a car must get a special ID from the state -- if they can afford them. A student ID doesn't count; neither does a state employee ID in Texas.
According to a Harvard study, "the expenses for documentation, travel, and waiting time [for obtaining voter identification cards] are significant—especially for minority group and low-income voters—typically ranging from about $75 to $175."
Folks who do find a way to beg, borrow or save to jump the ID hurdle (in place since the Supreme Court trashed the Voting Rights Act), there are more hurdles to jump. But the worst is so few polling places in parts of the state where Democrats might be lurking. Will you give up your job to vote? People do get fired for missing work to spend hours standing in line to cast a ballot. I'm glad this column didn't resort to the usual 'oh, they're just lazy' attack on young people.
168
@Sharon
I mean it does seem a bit dishonest, but TX allows for absentee voting of you plan to be "out of the county" during the election.
Even if you just had to work, you could still in theory have planned to be somewhere else.
I wish it were simpler than that. We shouldn't have to choose between being honest and being able to vote if it comes to that.
8
@JT The catch is that your theoretical somewhere else must also be where your ballot is mailed. Also, giving false information in the application is considered a fraudulent use that is now punishable with up to 2 years in prison.
2
@Sharon : most people over age 16 do have driver's licenses, so it can't be THAT hard.
The cost varies in different states, so I cannot speak for Texas -- but in Ohio, the cost is $24 and the license is good for 4 years (so $6 a year).
You can get a State ID here (looks the same, but no driving privileges) for $5, also lasts 4 years for $1.25 a year.
I consider that very affordable.
I use my driver's license as an ID for about 1000 things each year, so even if I did not drive....I'd still keep one.
2
Key point noted: Republican voter Suppression— this is a criminal but long time and long term republican (successful) republican strategy. UNLESS Democrats take back the Senate and presidency and retain the House we are not going to see much change. And Democrats MUST retain control of the entire government for at least 2 and better yet 3 or more terms.
The republican partisan take over of judges is going to take decades to undo.
35
This sounds like a disconnect between goals and personal agency to reach them.
In Sanders’ speech on Wednesday, he warned that the wishes of young adults would have to be incorporated into the Democratic Party platform. Maybe so, but Sanders needs to direct that sentiment to those supporters who have to participate in elections if they want their votes to be influential.
16
When I cast my first vote it was for JFK & I remember how excited my cohort was - almost as excited as we were about coming of age for a legal drink, getting a driver's license, etc. I'm surprised that this year, w/ so much at stake, there isn't more will among the young & believe it must be because of obstacles cited in the piece: fewer polling places & difficult registration.
8