Youth Voting Problem

Improved Essays
“Nobody will ever deprive the American people of the right to vote except themselves and the only way they could do this is by not voting” -Franklin D. Roosevelt.
With the rise of youth voting increasing to 22 million voters in the 2008 presidential and 23 million voters in the 2012 election, still only about half of the American youth population voted in 2008 and 2012. This is a serious problem in our society because young people need to find their voices by getting politically educated and turn out to vote. The only people who can change the shortage of youth voting are the 18-29 year olds who make up that group. Those that did vote made up 7.8-9.3 percent of the total electorate in 2008 and 19 percent of the total electorate in 2012. There
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That electoral was only made up of half of 18-29 year olds who voted (Robillard). Imagine if the other half of youth voted, politicians would be forced to confront the interests of this age group. In fact, in the next election 18-29 year olds have the capabilities to be the largest group of possible voters, but only a portion of this group will actually vote (“Rock the Vote!”). The only way to see results is by either encouraging youth voters to become members of rockthevote.com to register and educate themselves. Be a part of the portion who gets registered and who makes a difference by fighting for their interests. Having a required civic participation plan will educate students on the importance and impact they can make for their country before they even have a chance to go to the …show more content…
Countries like Cuba, China, and Russia don’t get that luxury and 50 percent of American youth take that for granted. We are truly a country governed by the people. Our four fathers didn’t fight for our freedom just to have a couple centuries pass by and have no one exercise those rights they fought so hard for! The reason America is so great is because of the freedoms and choices we are given. If we continue down the road of bad voting turnouts, in 50 to 100 years we could be looking at conversations of America becoming a dictatorship (Giese, Molly). Instead of thinking of voting as a chore, consider voting a way of voicing the interests of your generation now and your contribution of keeping democracy

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