Young people don’t vote. At least that’s what we’ve been hearing for a long time. It has been true that young voters, in particular those ages 18-29, have voted in far lower numbers than older voters, in particular those over 65. This year, however, that truism might become significantly less true. Harvard’s Institute of Politics has polled Americans 18-29 years old every other year, just before the elections, going back to 1986, and this year’s numbers suggest the highest youth vote rate since that year. Four of 10 of those surveyed declared they would “definitely vote” this year. The figure was 27 percent in 2010 and 26 percent in 2014. If that apples-to-apples comparison holds, this year’s youth vote would be truly historic.
Those young voters Harvard surveyed are overwhelmingly progressive, according to the policy positions they support, as well as their partisan leanings. By a margin of 66 percent to 32 percent, they prefer Democrats to control Congress as opposed to Republicans. A recent Gallup poll (see the graph on the right) shows how different age groups view Trump in terms of job approval. The gap is striking. The more young people vote, the better the resistance will do, which means the better off our country will be.
I sincerely hope the Harvard poll is true, and data on early voting suggests that it might just be, with strong youth voting numbers coming from Arizona, Texas, Florida, and Georgia. It would be great to see young voters be the decisive factor in electing a Gov. Abrams and a Gov. Gillum, not to mention a Sen. Synema, a Sen. O’Rourke, and a Sen. Nelson.
Democrats are certainly working hard to get the youth vote out. For example, Democrat Mike Levin, who is running for the congressional seat being vacated by the retiring (not to mention odious) Darrell Issa, delivered a powerful message to the crowd at a recent California Young Democrats gathering:
In 2016, 31 million voters [age 18 to 35], all very much eligible to vote, decided not to. The result was Donald Trump -- and Charlottesville, and a tax cut designed to benefit the wealthiest 1% of Americans, and Justice Neil Gorsuch, and Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
You stay home on Election Day, and Republicans stay in charge. Your healthcare gets taken away, your student loans become more impossible to pay off, and places like Pulse (the nightclub in Orlando) and Parkland are joined by many more preventable tragedies.
The choice really is that stark, for young voters and, of course, for all of us.
I’d been thinking about young voters, and in particular those who might not vote, after reading an article called “12 Young People on Why They Probably Won’t Vote.” Granted, it is far from a systematic survey, but it was nevertheless informative. To clarify, none of the interviewees appeared to be conservatives who were not voting out of some disappointment with Trump or the Republicans. The two most prominent reasons the interviewees cited for not voting were: the difficulty of voting (either on Election Day, where one cited concerns about waiting in line for hours, or the difficulties surrounding getting registered to vote), and a lack of enthusiasm about the Democratic Party because it is supposedly too centrist in ideological terms.
Let me try to address the concerns those young Americans expressed in the hopes of reaching any like-minded, left-of-center readers who are thinking about not voting. First, I take your concerns seriously. Although plenty of states make access to voting more difficult than it should be, only one of the two parties has engaged in a systematic, nationwide effort to suppress the vote. That is the Republican Party. They have done so for years, long before Donald Trump lost the popular vote by 3 million yet became president. The Republicans have only ramped up their efforts in specific places in 2018.
These efforts have disproportionately affected younger voters, in particular college students who attend school out-of-state, and also poor voters, as well as African-American, Latino, and Native American voters—all of whom are more likely to lack the documentation Republicans are requiring of them. Republicans have been lying about voter fraud—which essentially doesn’t exist if you look at the actual numbers (since 2000, the rate of voter fraud is 0.0000044 percent)—to justify suppressing the vote. Please don’t reward their efforts by staying home. If you’re angry that voting is too difficult, please don’t throw your vote away. Go vote for Democrats—the party that wants to see people exercise their right to vote, and will help make that happen.
As for the question of ideology, it is an important one. In the aforementioned Harvard youth poll, a majority of respondents declared support for three of the issues presented to them:
- A federal jobs guarantee that would provide funding so that every American would be guaranteed a job paying at least $15 an hour and offering paid family/sick leave and health benefits: 56% support, 20% oppose among all 18-29 year-olds (18% don't know); 63% support, 24% oppose among likely voters (10% don't know).
- Eliminating tuition and fees at public four-year colleges and universities for students from families that make up to $125,000 per year and making community college tuition-free for all income levels: 56% support, 20% oppose among all 18- 29 year-olds (18% don't know); 62% support, 25% oppose among likely voters (11% don't know).
- Single Payer Health Care (also referred [sic] Medicare for all) where the federal government would cover all the health care expenses of individuals: 55% support, 21% oppose among all 18-29 year-olds (19% don't know); 67% support, 23% oppose among likely voters (8% don't know).
These are important issues, ones that many Democrats embrace, in particular those on the more liberal end of the spectrum. They are policies that will never see the light of day as long as Republicans maintain control of government, at whatever level (federal, state, etc.) you are talking about. The point is that only one party will enact policies anywhere close to ones like these, and it is the Democratic Party. The Republican Party’s economic ideology stands diametrically opposed to the worldview from which these progressive policies flow.
Donald Trump has built his entire campaign around hate, bigotry, and white identity politics from the day he announced his White House run right up to his ‘closing argument’ for the midterms. However, this election isn’t just about supporting the lesser of two evils—although the companion piece to the article about the 12 young voters did put it nicely: “voting for the lesser of two evils is great — that way you get less evil.”
For young voters who reject what Trump stands for but may not find the Democrat on your ballot is exactly what you’re looking for, please consider that a vote is nothing more or less than a choice. You must choose who you think better represents your values. In 99.99 percent of the elections out there, that choice is between a Democrat and a Republican, as only the major-party candidates have a chance of winning. If the Democrat is closer to your beliefs, and you stay home, you are helping the Republican. You are helping to elect someone who stands for, in many cases, the exact opposite of what you believe.
Democrats, just about every one of them on the ballot, will do more than their Republican opponent to protect your health care coverage, your voting rights, your rights on the job, your access to education, your economic safety net should you fall on hard times, your right to a clean environment—hell, to a world that won’t become uninhabitable, something very much possible if Trump and climate deniers win out.
Democrats will do more than their Republican opponents to promote an economy where growth and success actually accrue to Americans up and down the economic ladder—not just those in the top 1 percent. Democrats will do more to protect you from the greedy corporations who will both choose their profits over your health and safety, and screw over the honest businesses forced to compete with them. And Democrats will, last but damn sure not least, fight to protect your civil rights and those of every American regardless of race, gender, sexual identity, religion, or any other status.
No, you will not agree with every Democrat on every issue. But if you agree with the Democrat more often than not, and you stay home, you are not standing up for what you believe in. Instead, you are empowering those, like Donald Trump, whose values and beliefs you abhor. It’s as simple as that.
Please, young people, get out and vote and help Get Out The Vote for Democrats in your area. Click here to enter your zip code and find a volunteer event near you.
Ian Reifowitz is the author of Obama’s America: A Transformative Vision of Our National Identity (Potomac Books).