This appeal is aimed at YOU, young Wisconsin voter.
I remember seeing you walking down the streets and sidewalks in Madison on cold February days three and half years ago, streams of you making your way to the capitol after you walked out of school in sympathy with your dedicated teachers.
I remember you in my small town, listening and talking in our excellent school about what was going on, and why some of the so-called town leaders were bashing the teachers and coaches and nurses.
I remember hearing through the grapevine about college students outside Madison, on all the campuses around the state, stepping up to say that screwing over the great UW system was not a way to move Wisconsin forward.
Well, your time has come....
I just checked the numbers.
In 2010, there were 4.3 million eligible voters in Wisconsin. 2.1 million voted, a little over 49%. That in itself is a sad statistic. Half of Wisconsin's eligible voters did not care enough, or have information enough, to vote. Walker prevailed by a little less than 6%, about 125,000 votes. 28% of voters in the 18-29 age bracket turned out. Not bad -- 13th in the nation -- and this was in the face of concerted efforts to suppress their the youth and black vote.
In 2012, 58% of young voters turned out in Wisconsin, helping to elect President Obama and Senator Tammy Baldwin. 58% of you voted -- the third highest rate of youth voting in the nation (after the District of Colombia and Mississippi)!
For this coming election, 18 to 29-year-old voters in Wisconsin number 840,000, almost 20% of the eligible voting population.
Do the math. If Wisconsin youth turn out at the 2010 level, about 235,000 of you will vote. If you turn out at 2012 levels, 487,000 of you will vote. That's a difference of about 250,000 voters: twice as many as Walker won by four years ago.
Wisconsin youth: you can make the difference. But I know... the candidates are not talking to you, even though you can turn the tide in Wisconsin:
What’s the plan for this fall's election? For Republicans, avoiding the wrath of the young appears to involve distancing themselves as much as possible from the issue of gay marriage. For Democrats, it includes emphasizing the issue along with economic issues that appeal specifically to young voters, including student loan debt.
That is from an article published last spring. Sure enough, hardly a word from Walker about
his inconvenient views on gay marriage:
Gov. Scott Walker has deflected questions about his stances on abortion and same-sex marriage during his reelection campaign this year.
And Mary Burke, as much as I am working, hoping, donating, and praying for her success, has not made student loan debt a major issue.
But now is where those memories come in. Many of you were still in high school during the 2011 Wisconsin uprising, and ineligible to vote. Thousands and thousands of you have turned eighteen. Thousands more of you were college students who had not yet voted in elections. I kept thinking at the time: these kids will be marked by this experience. I sure hope so. I sure hope that now, with some more years behind you, you have not been disillusioned, and are ready and eager to step into the voting booth. And so this is the appeal:
VOTE. FIND OUT WHERE TO VOTE. GET TEN FRIENDS TO VOTE. TELL THEM TO GET TEN FRIENDS TO VOTE. TEXT, TWITTER, POST, AND SHARE. MAKE THIS HAPPEN IN THE NEXT EIGHT DAYS. WE NEED YOU. THIS IS ABOUT YOUR FUTURE: YOUR LIVES, YOUR COMMUNITIES, YOUR HEALTH, YOUR EDUCATION, YOUR DEMOCRACY, YOUR LAND AND WATER, YOUR GENERATION.
Make no mistake. Those voter ID laws passed by your bought-and-paid-for Republican-led legislature? They were aimed straight at you, and at black voters in Milwaukee, and at older voters. They were passed specifically to keep YOU from voting. The U.S. Supreme Court has given us a temporary reprieve from that act of voter suppression. They may not do so next time.
My dream is that we not only bounce this corrupt and shameless regime out of office in Wisconsin, but that we your generation helps to make it happen. Let the renewal of Wisconsin, and of democracy, begin with you.