Why Students Don't Vote (And Why They Should)

Source: http://www.rceno.com/RCENO/one-stop-early-voting-begins-in-wentworth-on-today-april-24th/

Tuesday was a long day throughout the county. It was cold and wet and there was an election going on. I say this because many of you may not have noticed. Voter turnout in the US, especially during midterm elections, is abysmally low, especially among students.

This can of course be explained by the disillusionment and disconnection of millennials. This is the old song- that we’re lazy, uninterested, self-centered and self-obsessed. It’s common knowledge: millennials don’t vote or care. Except that sometimes we do.

The University of Illinois Student Senate has made a monumental push to get people out to vote this semester. Organizations across campus from the Illini Voter Coalition to the League of Women Voters have teamed up to get students registered and voting. They did everything they could to make voting easier for students.

On Tuesday, voting was centrally located in the Illini Union for everyone registered in Champaign County. For people not registered in Champaign Country, the Graduate Employee Organization offered free rides to vote at the County Clerk’s office. Hundreds of students, graduates and professors teamed up to increase voter participation during the midterm elections with everything from Rock Concerts to a small army of volunteers with clipboards and registration forms.

source: http://www.mtv.com/news/1956257/lil-jon-rock-the-vote-turn-out-for-what-video/

And yet, how many students voted? Turnout statics for Tuesday are not back yet, but when I voted at 4 PM, the number had not yet reached 200. That’s actually quite good considering that in last spring’s Primaries only 54 students at the University of Illinois voted.

On a campus of 40,000, just 54 made it to the polls. Students have interests that are not being represented by their elected officials, and it translates into apathy towards the whole process. Tuition goes up every year, the job market is far from stellar, and many of us struggle to make ends meet with unpaid internships.

We graduate to face a politically and economically unstable world, with the heavy weight of college loans that no bankruptcy can remove weighing us down. Although there is a widespread sense of dissatisfaction towards the government, there is little of the student activism that characterized the 60s and 70s in the US.

But some of us are still fighting. The recent push by the Student Body President Mitch Dickey for same day voter registration is the first step in the right direction. With exams, parties and papers to worry about, most students aren’t thinking about the election 3 weeks ahead, and miss their chance to register.

A hundred students with clipboards can only register a small fraction of the 40,000 students on campus. And then suddenly it’s election week and most of the student body is disenfranchised. Same day voter registration allows those students to still have a vote.

Despite repeated requests, the University of Illinois has been denied its own same-day voter registration station. But would it really help? How many people register on the day of the election anyway?

In Wisconsin in 2008, 460,000 people registered to vote on the day of the election- amounting to 15% of the electorate. The arguments against same day voter registration- that it’s logistically difficult or causes lines at the polls- seem like weak reasons to deny 15% of the population the right to vote, especially in today’s political climate when races are decided by 4 or 5%. Perhaps the reason there aren’t lines at the polls now is simply that those people in front of you in line weren’t allowed to vote.

Same day voter registration is legal in Illinois, but requires a trip to Springfield. With little access to transportation and midterms breathing down their necks, it is unreasonable to expect students to drive (with cars they don’t have) to Springfield to vote- especially on a Tuesday.

The opening of same day voter registration in the Illini Union is a necessary step to increasing student voter turnout, and allowing students to have a full voice in the democratic process.

Many people criticize my generation for being disengaged and apathetic, but all the work towards same-day voter registration being done here on campus is an example of students calling out for a chance to be involved, to be engaged- a chance that is being denied to them.

We’re growing up and graduating, and looking out into a world that only seems to get darker. If we don’t start fixing it soon, we might just have to wait for our kids to do it. So give us a chance, give us a voice, give us a vote.

Source: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/scott-walker-criticizes-same-day-voter-registration/