Staff Editorial | Youth voter apathy a concern nationwide

Vassar is definitely a politically active campus. From student groups supporting various positions on the political spectrum to student-run blogs and magazines to emphatic posters voicing opinions on our nation’s president, Vassar students do their part to inform one another about important issues. But when it comes to voting, Vassar students fall into the category that politicians and pundits alike love to criticize: the youth voter.

American Demographics, an online economics newsletter, reported in March 2004 that the National Youth Vote (voters under 25) had declined by as much as 13 percent in the past 35 years. Harvard’s Vanishing Voter Project reported in 2005 that 35 percent of young people believe their vote hardly counts or does not count at all. When examining reasons for why this sentiment exists, the Project reported that young non-voters lack interest, are disgusted with politics, and do not have adequate voter registration knowledge.

While Vassar students are arguably less likely to be indecisive about political issues than youth on a national scale, this does not mean that we escape the apathy of our age group altogether.

One cause of this apathy has to do with the common youth voter’s lack of interaction with informational media. Susan Sherr, Director of the Civic Engagement and Political Participation Programs at the Eagleto Institute of Politics at Rutgers University, found in her study “News for A New Generation: Can It Be Fun and Functional?” that Americans under age 25 are the least likely to read a newspaper. She also cited a Pew Center study which revealed that only 19 percent of Americans under the age of 30 regularly watch nightly television news.

At Vassar, students can access many sources of news, including newspapers, newsmagazines, television, and the Internet. However, the walls that surround Vassar’s campus are more than just physical. In the rush of the academic year filled with papers, exams, events and activities, many students find it hard to make time to read newspapers or watch news on TV, particularly when the issues reported do not directly affect the campus. As a result, students are often uninformed about what is going on in the Poughkeepsie area, in their hometowns, or on the wider national stage.

Many students are registered to vote in their home state rather than in New York, and it is therefore difficult to stay informed about local candidates come election time. But if there was ever a time to know the issues on state ballots, that time is now, because of the number of “hot-button” issues that will be decided across the country this coming Tuesday.

In Missouri, which has one of the six potentially winnable seats for the Democrats to gain control of the Senate, the allowance of stem cell research is a major ballot initiative.

In South Dakota, an abortion referendum was put on the ballot after the state banned abortion in every circumstance except for when the mother’s health is at risk.

In Michigan, affirmative action is hotly contested, and same-sex marriage bans are making an appearance in eight state elections.

More students at Vassar tend to vote in high-profile presidential elections than they do in congressional election; however, in mid-term elections, many state issues that have national ramifications (like the ones listed above) will be decided. Voter participation is more crucial now than ever.

This country prides itself on democracy, but recent voter turnout shows that not everyone is engaged in politics. In 2004, less than 60 percent of the voter-eligible population visited the polls, showing that voter apathy is not just a problem for the younger generation.

For the youth vote in particular, it is often a lack of knowledge about local and national issues that keeps students at home on election day. College campuses can be insular places, and learning what is going on thousands of miles away can be tiresome, even in the Internet age. Yet the old adage that every vote counts rings true not only for presidential elections, but for elections in between as well.

The Staff Editorial represents at least a two-thirds majority of the Editorial Board.