New study projects a stunning drop in 2018 millennial voter turnout in battleground states
- The 2016 presidential election — and its outcome — may have given plenty of Americans a new sense of urgency when it comes to civics.
- But a new study projects that 40 million Americans who voted last year will likely not show up at the polls for the 2018 midterms.
- And that two-thirds of those “drop-off” voters will be millennials, unmarried women and people of color.
- The report, just out from the Voter Participation Center and Lake Research Partners, “Comparing the Voting Electorate in 2012-2016 and Predicting 2018 Drop-off,” notes that many of those expected not to cast a ballot next year live in key battleground states like Arizona, Nevada, Florida and Ohio. Read more (7/21/17)
Young people in America, REGISTER TO VOTE AND GET TO THE POLLS NEXT YEAR
THIS MATTERS
YOUR VOTE MATTERS SO MUCH OKAY
Just look at the difference young people getting out and voting made in the UK general election this year…young voters CAN make a POSITIVE DIFFERENCE by getting out and voting
And I know this isn’t a presidential election but it is in some ways EVEN MORE IMPORTANT
Because the president can’t do anything without congress and the senate on his side…but likewise, if the Republicans get a majority it means it will be easier for that disgusting sack of stinking dog-vomit Donald Trump and his party of traitors and criminals to push through the DISGUSTING things they want to try and inflict on the country and its people
Get out and vote democrat next year and keep the Republicans from getting a blank check to try and push through their bigoted, evil bullshit
I’m pretty sure the biggest barrier to young people voting isn’t not caring, it’s not knowing.
Am I registered? Shit, who knows? I’ve moved five times in the last four years. I think I registered, but that was a year ago, did I change districts since then? Where even are the polling places in this town? What are their hours? I know I submitted a registration, but did they get it? I didn’t get a confirmation. Did they lose my form? Am I even eligible? Who knows? Oh well, I’m sure I can always register in the days leading up to the – whoops, there’s a deadline and it’s already gone by.
This is one of those civic skills that you would really think would be taught in high school, and – surprise! – it isn’t.
So here’s how to check which district you’re in and who your rep is.
Here’s how to find out if you’re registered.
Here are the deadlines for when to register.
Here’s how to register, if it turns out you’re not.
Here’s how to find local polling places.
Of course, all of this – in the way of Tumblr, and the internet more generally – will be lost to the vagaries of cyberspace by the time November rolls around. So hey: tag it with “voting reference” and you’ll always be able to find it again.
Why the fuck does your country make it so hard to vote? Here everyone that is 18 years old on the day of the election is automatically registered and you get an invitation by mail.
I think Australia’s got the right idea. Vote, or pay a fine. I have heard from friends who were in the hospital or in situations that would make it difficult to vote here in the US that they will come to you so you can vote. (Aussies can correct this if it’s wrong or partly but not totally true.)
I wasn’t able to vote in the 2004 election because the state I lived in at the time (Texas) had the wrong deadline date on their website. I had plenty of time to register, I thought. So I go to register two weeks before the deadline, and the website has changed, and the deadline now says it was two months prior.
Where I lived in MA, in the 2008 election, the polling places local to me were all grandfathered in and not disability accessible. Plus, it had just snowed and I was in incredible pain from my rheumatoid arthritis, and I couldn’t walk up stairs. It also was not easy to get an absentee ballot.
Since moving back to my homestate of Washington, where they will prod you about registering to vote when you get state ID or driver’s licenses, and I think they ask if you’re there for other reasons too. Also, voting is by mail. The only times I haven’t is primary, usually because I can’t find out enough information about the candidates at that point. To my knowledge, the only voting you have to go somewhere for is the presidential caucus, and people have been trying to change that to be by mail, too. (It should be!)
Even though it’s made this easy, only about half of the state votes. That’s better than some states where it’s 30% or less, but it’s still way too few. There are multiple other countries that have an 80-90% voting participation.
2018 in particular is so, so, so very important, because if the Republicans remain in power, or worse, get a supermajority, we are completely fucked. What’s going on right now will look minor in comparison, because if they get a supermajority where they can basically push through what they want, we will spend the next decade or more undoing the damage they’ll have done – at least, what of that damage can be undone. Some of it, like environmental damage, will be permanent and once the damage is done, there’s no taking it back.
SO MAKE SURE YOU ARE REGISTERED TO VOTE, STARTING NOW, KEEP YOUR VOTER REGISTRATION UPDATED, AND VOTE IN 2018. THIS IS IMPORTANT, PEOPLE. THIS AFFECTS NOT JUST THE US, BUT THE WORLD AND THE VERY PLANET WE LIVE ON.
