November 8th, 2016. Remember this date because this is the day that you will find your polling place and vote in this year’s trending election.
Millennials, listen up, because we are talking to you in particular. If you are at least 18 years old by the time November 8th rolls around, you need to get out and vote. You have the exact same right to vote as women and men who are two or three times your age – and your voice matters just as much.
Maybe you’ve heard the statistics regarding your age group’s voter turnout rate. It’s true – young people (that’s you!) have historically proven that they are less likely to vote in elections than Americans 30 years of age and older. Although the term “millennial” is a bit ambiguous in defining an exact age group, generally it’s considered to be men and women who are 18-29 years old. On July 1st, 2015, this age group made up 16.7 percent – around 53.7 million people – of the United States population.
The Census Bureau groups millennials into an 18-24 year range, estimating that 49.4 percent of the reporting millennials are registered to vote, but only 41.2 percent of millennials actually voted in 2012.
So why do people who have just received the right to vote choose not to exercise this right? When you turned 18, maybe you ran over to your local convenience store and bought a lottery ticket. But did you immediately go and learn how to register to vote? Maybe not.
Among other reasons, our lack of political efficacy plays a major role in this low turnout. Many millennials hold the belief that one vote won’t alter the political process in any noticeable way. Although this is a seemingly logical philosophy, if a significant number of millennials believe this and, as a result, don’t vote or even register to vote, then millions of voices are not heard. This is what leads to a very low number of young people registering to vote and actually turning out to the polls.
If you’re a millennial, please register to vote. And if you are registered, please vote. How can a political process be truly democratic and representative of the United States’ population if only 61.8 percent of reporting U.S. citizens voted in the November 2012 election? If a little over half of the U.S. population is voting, it’s a flawed picture of what we actually think as a nation.
Your vote counts. Don’t waste it.
