Today’s Links
Articles:
The Fulcrum – Don’t take young people for granted in November
Alliance for Youth Organizing Poll – YOUNG VOTERS IN BATTLEGROUND STATES ON THE MIDTERM ELECTIONS
Groups Taking Action:
Voter Participation Center, Alliance for Youth Action
You’re listening to the American Democracy Minute, keeping YOUR government by and for the people.
Midterms generally have a much lower youth turnout than Presidential elections. But an opinion piece in the Fulcrum argues that when younger voters have something to motivate them, they will turn out.
Dakota Hall of the Alliance for Youth Action and Tom Lopach of the Voter Participation Center write that turnout of younger voters in 2018 exceeded expectations, and indications are that a high number of voters 18-39 intend to vote in the 2022 midterms.
They cite a survey conducted in battleground states by Civiqs and the Alliance for Youth Organizing, a sister group to Hall’s organization. It found that protection of women’s reproductive rights is driving younger Democrats to the polls, and the economy and inflation is the motivator for young Republicans. The good news is that 86% of younger voters say they will be involved in the 2022 midterm election.
Young voters of all races considered inflation and the economy as their top issue. But priorities for other issues varies slightly by race, with young black voters ranking the ending systemic racism higher, and both black and Latinx voters ranking abortion access lower than young white voters.
The Hall-Lopach article also cites some not-so-good news. A recent Harvard study showed that 42% of young voters say their vote doesn’t make a difference, down from 31% in 2018. No doubt the result of systematic gerrymandering and voter suppression measures around the country since 2020.
Links to the article and poll can be found at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org. For the American Democracy Minute, I’m Brian Beihl.