The Disparity of Younger Voters

By Kayla Blake

One of the things that I noticed was that there were a lot of older voters and very few young people. There is a severe lack of political voices among those who are younger.

In November, 2021, Cleveland had a mayoral election. On election day, I worked at the polls at Daniel E Morgan Elementary School. Most of the voters I saw were around 50 or 60 despite the median age of someone living in Cleveland being about 36.  In pretty much every other part of the US, there is a clear disparity between young and old voters. 

According to the Census Bureau, only 51% of the people between the ages of 18 and 24 voted in the 2020 election. This was about an 11% increase from the 2016 election, which had about 39% youth voter turnout according to Tufts University.

This means that young adults fall far behind in terms of voter turnout.

While working on election day, I had a lot of time to think about this. I wondered why out of all the voters I saw that day, very few were young. At first I  did not understand because personally, I am a political person and understand the importance of voting and the power it holds. However, I realized many people aren’t as political as I am and don’t hold strong opinions when it comes to world events (which is understandable). 

I decided to do some more research on why people within my general age group don’t turn up at the polls as much as their older counterparts.

First, this isn’t just an American problem. This same thing happens in other democratic countries. In fact, it happens in most of them. One of the reasons why younger people don’t get out and vote is because young people, who are just starting their adulthoods, have no financial cushion, unlike other generations and might not be able to take off work or build their schedule around voting.

Trinity College Professor of International Politics Mark N. Franklin said in a  New York Times article that this is especially true in America because it is not mandatory for a business to give workers time off to vote. There are many people here with families and/or bad financial situations to the point where they literally can’t afford to take a day off of work. Missing a day of work could mean they’re missing a meal or missing rent or tuition money. Older generations are more established and therefore are able to take some time off, especially elderly people who usually work little to none.

Another reason why I believe there is a disparity with young voters is that a lot of people are discouraged and don’t believe their vote would count. This is a concept I learned last year and it’s called voter apathy. Some people just don’t think their voting would make any difference in this country.  So, they don’t bother spending any time on it. This can come from miseducation or discouragement when it comes to political action.

I believe that most of this can be overcome. One thing we can do is educate people more on the importance of voting and how it can have a lot of impact on society. For example, I am currently reading a book about former Georgia State Rep. Stacey Abrams and her political work. She helped the Democrats win the 2020 presidential election by mobilizing voters and breaking records of voter turnout almost single-handedly. I believe if people hear more stories like this, more than likely they would feel a greater urge to vote. 

Another thing I believe we can do is to create more systemic changes to make it easier to vote. Voting is hard for some people because they can not take time off, or other random barriers. One of the most notorious barriers is how in urban settings, there are long voting lines where people have to wait for hours. This makes it discouraging and makes some people turn away (rightfully so). Some studies even show that some voter lines in POC communities are  more concentrated than in white ones. In addition to this, it is illegal for anyone to give them bottled water! If we make it easier to vote people might not have a problem with showing up to the polls. 

In conclusion, there is a lack of voter participation among young people. I’ve even seen it with my own two eyes. Everyone deserves the right to vote and engage in the civic process. We must make it easier for people to do this and educate people more on the importance of a single vote and how it can hold power. I hope that in the future, there is a surge in participation among my current age group and that everyone has the chance to have a voice in the political process.