Essay 3- College Students Votes PDF

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Essay #3: College Students’ Votes Skyler Lowman Young people have historically low voter turnout rates at about 50% of 18-29 year olds. According to CIRCLE, generally young voters turnout is lower in midterm elections than in presidential elections. The highest young voters turnout rate in a presidential election was 55.4% in 1972 and most recently was 46.1% in the 2016 election. Meanwhile, in 2018 the highest level of youth turnout in a midterm election was reached at 31%. Overall, these are very low numbers especially when compared to older generations such as 65 to 74 year olds that average about 6572% voter turnout. Young voters, while increasingly enthusiastic about politics, still experience barriers that cause low voter turnout. Many young voters, 18-29, are either in college or just getting out of college. The three main barriers discussed in our book to low voter turnout are registration requirements, election day timing, and the complexity of voting. For college students especially, it can be confusing to register in your college town or to vote via absentee ballot. In a New York Times article entitled “College Students are Inconsistent Voters for a Reason”, the author argues why many college students don’t vote, despite their appearance of political engagement. The main problem that he argues is that “political parties mobilize voters around their physical residential address” (Kidd). Many college students don’t go to school where they can vote and remain unsettled until much later in life increasing the difficulties and complexities that come along with voting. This can go to explain the anomaly of why many young voters are politically active, yet their voter turnout rate is consistently low; it is not due to a lack of interest, but due to structural limitations. Another reason young people don’t vote as much is because they “tend to be less rooted in communities, less familiar with registration and voting procedures, not in the habit of voting, and have less time away from school and work to vote” (Greenberg & Page). There is no doubt that young voters’ turnout rate is low for various reasons. However, this generation does show a lot of enthusiasm for politics and a desire to enact change, which I think will be apparent in our voter turnout rates in future elections once we have settled down more. During the general election, typically Republican and Democratic candidates would try to appeal to voters by taking more popular and similar stances on policies. However, due to our increasingly polarized parties, candidates have moved toward taking more distinct stances on issues. This appeals to young voters as they argue to want more structural change in their leaders. With the exception of 3 presidential election years, 1976, 1984, and 1988, young people have always voted Democrat and increasingly in the past 3 elections. While the majority of young voters are Democrat (37% in 2016) and Liberal (37% in 2016), many young voters are moving toward a more independent (35% in 2016) and moderate (38% in 2016) standpoint (Galston & Henrickson). According to Brookings article, “young people believe parties are unable to advance their views” and therefore young voters are becoming less identified with parties. However, there is an overall consensus due to ongoing trends that young voters characterize as democrats and liberal and tend to express that through their voting habits. According to the New York Times article entitled “The Snapchat Generation of Voters is a Powerful One”, the author argues that young people believe there is something wrong with the previous generation of political leadership. This is backed up by the Harvard IOP survey results which concluded that there is an overall concern among young people with the moral direction our country is headed. This has led young voters into a more progressive mindset of wanting structural change, which is something that Bernie Sanders clearly stands for. According to the Harvard IOP survey results, the issue that most resonates with young people is protecting the

environment. Therefore, they tend to support candidates that promote policies that go to protect the environment. This is a key reason why young people don’t typically care for Trump as he withdrew from the Paris Climate Agreement in 2017. Harvard’s article entitled “Youth Political Engagement and Hope Ahead of the 2020 Election” greatly focuses on the issue preferences of young voters. The author, Deal, also argues that young people value protecting the Earth and the issue of climate change, which greatly aligns with Democrats and is why “nearly 70% of young voters voted for Democrats in 2018”. As of right now, the candidates left for presidency are Trump, Biden, and Sanders. Sanders undoubtedly has the most support from young voters for various reasons despite his opponents attempts. Trump has not done much to appeal to young voters, especially with environmental issues. According to the Washington Post, “The GOP is struggling because they aren’t prioritizing issues of importance to voters”; although the economy is doing well, one journalist claims that “young voters want a president who is concerned about social issues, cultural issues, and economics” (Scott). Meanwhile, in an article posted in the New York Times, Trump’s campaign officials say that his goal is to appeal to “black voters, suburban women, and upper-income white voters” (Haberman, Karni, & Martin). Overall, is it fairly clear that Trump has not shown any attempts to appeal to young voters in the 2020 election thus far. Biden on the other hand has given some attempts to appeal to young voters. However, despite these attempts, young people still don’t really seem to like him as much as they do his opponent, Sanders. Biden does have policies that appeal to young, progressive voters such as “raising the federal minimum wage to $15/ hour, making 2 years of college free, expanding or fixing existing student debt relief programs, taxing carbon emissions”, etc. (Politico). However, the younger generation don’t think his plans are good enough, especially when compared to Bernie’s. In a New York Times Article, a 28 year old responded to Biden’s climate change plan by saying that his plan “is nowhere near good enough to save our Earth” (Astor). Regardless of Biden’s efforts to be actively engaged with young people, there is a disconnect. Overall, “Mr. Biden has never given much indication that he is seeking their [young people’s] votes at all” (Astor). However, Bernie has been making extreme efforts to connect with the young voters, which is why he is most likely the most supported candidate of young people today. In an article posted by Rolling Stone, Kroll describes how Bernie is actively trying to relate to young voters. He is unlike any of the other candidates; he has had rallies at universities, such as Winston-Salem State, which is an extremely diverse campus and the rally described in this article. Bernie not only hosted a rally here, but backed it up by playing popular rap music in between his speeches in order to relate more to the students. This is just one of many examples of the various ways Bernie has gone over and above to appeal to young voters. However, what appeals to young voters the most about Bernie is his stances on issues. His main issues are the Green New Deal, which is his very intensive plan to help solve climate change, Medicare for All, and arguably most preferred by the youth is his plan for free college (“Bernie Sanders on the Issues”). Overall, is it unarguable that Bernie has done the most to appeal to young people and, as a result, he seems to hit all of their issue preferences and therefore seems to be their preferred candidate in the 2020 election thus far. Young voters do have a historically low turnout rate regardless of how much support is shown throughout the campaign via rallies, political discussions and posts on social media, etc. In the 2016 election, one of the reasons for Trump’s success was due to the low voter turnout among Democrats in various crucial states that were predicted to vote for Clinton. Even though there was a lot of support shown beforehand by younger Americans for a female president and a

Democrat, they did not turn out to the polls. Due to this fact, I personally think that young voters will continue this trend and while they will have some impact on the 2020 election, I do not think that they will change the overall outcome. Many people, in general, vote off of the past performance of candidates using the retrospective voting model. According to Greenberg and Page, “the state of the economy has been repeatedly shown to be one of the best ways to predict incumbent party success in presidential elections”. According to the readings and to data, everything points to the argument that young voters will vote for the Democratic candidate, which among the two candidates, Bernie Sanders seems to be incredibly more liked among young people. However, according to the Harvard IOP survey results, “2020 young voters are more likely to support a pragmatic approach over a progressive approach”. All of the articles are written pre- coronavirus outbreak, which also means pre-economic downfall. After analyzing these articles and the chapter, I personally think that this new pandemic is going to have extreme effects on the outcome of this election as well as who young voters will support, regardless of data given. As this is a completely new and groundbreaking issue that has subsequently caused an extreme downfall in our economy, I could see young voters going for a more pragmatic approach, especially in a time like now, and voting based more off of economic issues than social issues. While this is contradictory to what is typical, this new and extremely relevant issue can cause a complete change in priority. In this respect, I could see young voters leaning more towards Biden as he would be the more pragmatic and less progressive approach, while still Democrat and liberal, during this time of crises. Given the information from the articles and the textbook as well as this new factor, I think that young voters will and already have played a large part in the election process mainly through their political engagement and ability to begin political conversations. Whether young people realize it or not, their engagement on social media regarding political topics, including the coronavirus, has an impact on the election and will have an impact on the results. Although I do not think that young voters physical votes will play a large role in the 2020 election, based off of the readings and data, I do think that their indirect political engagement will play a large role in the nomination of a more pragmatic democratic candidate. This engagement will eventually lead to a more economically minded presidential candidate in order to address the current issues our country is facing.

Bibliography “Bernie Sanders on the Issues.” Bernie Sanders - Official Campaign Website, berniesanders.com/issues/. “Harvard Youth Poll Finds Majority of Young Americans Support Impeachment and Removal of President Trump.” The Institute of Politics at Harvard University, iop.harvard.edu/about/newsletter-press-release/harvard-youth-poll-impeachment-nov182019. “Where Joe Biden Stands on the Biggest 2020 Issues.” POLITICO, www.politico.com/2020election/candidates-views-on-the-issues/joe-biden/. Astor, Maggie. “Joe Biden's Young Voter Problem: They Don't Think He's Listening.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 13 Mar. 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/03/13/us/politics/joe-biden-young-voters-bernie- sanders.html? auth=login-google. Deal, Jaden. “Youth Political Engagement and Hope Ahead of the 2020 Election.” Harvard Political Review Youth Political Engagement and Hope Ahead of the 2020 Election Comments, 18 Nov. 2019, harvardpolitics.com/united-states/youth-political-engagementand-hope-ahead-of-the-2020-election/. Galston, William A., and Clara Hendrickson. “How Millennials Voted This Election.” Brookings, Brookings, 22 Nov. 2016, www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2016/11/21/howmillennialsvoted/. Haberman, Maggie, et al. “On Trump's To-Do List: Take Back The Suburbs. Court Black Voters. Expand the Electoral Map. Win.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 8 Feb. 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/02/08/us/politics/trump-reelection-campaign.html. Kidd, Quentin. “Do College Students' Votes Really Matter in an Election?” The New York Times, The New York Times, www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2016/03/22/do-collegestudents-votes-really-matter-in-an-election/college-students-are-inconsistent-voters-for-areason. Kroll, Andy. “Inside Bernie Sanders' Plan for a Youth Vote Revolution.” Rolling Stone, 3 Mar. 2020, www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/bernie-sanders-super-tuesday-joebiden-democratic-presidential-campaign-hbcu-youth-vote-961414/. Luntz, Frank. “Do College Students' Votes Really Matter in an Election?” The New York Times, The New York Times, www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2016/03/22/do-collegestudents-votes-really-matter-in-an-election/the-snapchat-generation-of-voters-is-apowerful-one. Scott, Eugene. “Analysis | Trump Is Struggling to Connect with Young Voters. Here's Why.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 24 May 2019, www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/05/24/trump-is-struggling-connect-youngvoters-heres-why/....