A four-letter word
Young adults in southeast PA don’t always V-O-T-E

by Joseph Simek
Philly EDGE Correspondent 

         Do you care?
         By this time next week, we’ll know.
          With thoughts of the last presidential election and echoes of “vote or die!” still lingering in the back of our minds, a still divided country finds itself again headed to the polls on Tuesday (Nov. 7). In Southeastern Pennsylvania, it seems every race is close, so attention has turned to that all-important statistic -- voter turnout.
 If you’re under 30 years old, you’ve more than likely had every organization from Music For America to MoveOn.org trying to convince you to “rock the vote.”
            But is the youth of America planning on voting this time around?
 “The short answer is that the under-30 demographic has low turnout in presidential years, and even lower in off years like this one,” Diana Mutz, a political science professor at the University of Pennsylvania says.
 In fact, according to The Center for Information and Research on Civic Leaning and Engagement (CIRCLE), only 22 percent of young adults voted in the last midterm election in 2002. Compared to other age groups, it gets even uglier, with older voters being three times more likely to vote in most elections.
 However, all is not lost. If you look at the election in 2004, there are signs of life among youth voters. CIRCLE reports that voter turnout for those under the age of 30 increased from 42.3 percent in 2000 to 51.6 percent in 2004. Turnout in battleground states like Pennsylvania increased over 13 percent.
 “We did see a lot of first-time voters in 2004, many of them were young voters,” says Berwood Yost, Director of The Center for Opinion Research and The Floyd Institute for Public Policy at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster. “Young voters brought themselves up where their turnout wasn’t so unbalanced compared to other age groups.”
 Some think there is a chance that more young voters will step into voting booths this year than past midterm elections.
 “The young voters really gave (Sen. John) Kerry (D-Mass.) a large margin (in 2004),” says Yost. “That would suggest to me that you had more young people coming out to vote for Democrats. If that kind of enthusiasm is sustained and democratic turnout is as high as we suspect, that may mean more young voters.”
 However, judging by the responses of some average young citizens in local bars and coffee shops and on suburban street corners, a continuing increase in voter turnout for this demographic is probably not going to happen.             
            Even if young voters are not sure they will vote this year, most are positive their peers will not.
 “The youth doesn’t vote because they have a perception that they don’t have an affect, that one vote does not count for much, and that lobbying and other pressures trump everything else,” says Ben, a technology director from Chalfont.
 Others were not so nice, calling their peers “lazy,” “apathetic” and even “ignorant.”
          “No one I know is politically active,” says Valerie, a designer from Doylestown.
 Although in the past Christine, a 27-year-old single mother, has protested at the Democratic National Convention and even registered voters herself, she says she won’t vote this year.
  “At this point, the lesser of two evils won’t do us any good.” Instead, Christine says she prefers to vote with her dollar, “Tonight, I’m at a local pub and not a corporate chain.”
 For Liora, a 20-year-old student who plans on voting, she says the reason her peers don’t vote has more to do with a lack of interest in politics, than a lack of confidence in the system.
 “There is a percentage of us that are living responsible lives,” she says, “but most are out partying and having a good time. They’re not worrying about their future; they’re just living for the present.”
 And then there are those potential voters like Chris, an assistant retail manager from New Hope: “The thought process is there,” he says, “it just depends on what I’m doing that day.”
 Despite the history of low turnout and continuing sentiment that their vote doesn’t count, it appears the under-30 crowd still cares about the issues -- many of which have carried over from the 2004 election.
          Ask them what the number one issue is facing the country and chances are you’ll get a four-letter word in response -- “Iraq.”
 It’s the wars in the Middle East and issues of terrorism that drove many young people to vote in the last presidential election. According to Yost, Iraq mattered more to this demographic than to any other age group.
 “I don’t want to overstate it, but it was one of their top issues,” Yost says, “but so were other issues: taxes, education, economy, jobs, moral values. They were slightly more likely to talk about Iraq and terrorism, but it wasn’t like these other issues didn’t matter.”
 There are certainly other issues on the minds of some of our interviewees, from a statewide smoking ban, to the environment, to the opinion of the United States in other parts of the world. And with an end to the war nowhere in sight, some think it is time to concentrate on those other questions. 
 “Global warming is an issue that hasn’t been exhausted. It’s new enough that something can be done about it. As far as the war in Iraq, that vote sailed,” Chris says.
 “Another important issue is same-sex marriages,” Liora says, explaining that two of her friends just had a commitment ceremony. “I think it’s wrong they can’t get married.”
 Still, Yost maintains “major voting issues like Iraq and satisfaction with Congress and (President Bush)” drives most voters. Even if young people do have strong feelings on other issues, both Democrats and Republicans probably aren’t listening that closely. Instead, Yost says, the parties are spending their money and time on other age groups.
 “There has been a lot of spending on the campaigns in the southeast and that makes people pay attention and gets them out to vote,” he says. “The parties try to court voters who are likely to vote and unfortunately that often times leaves out young voters.”
 So, until the country’s youth start heading to the polls more frequently, their voices will fall on deaf ears. That is according to Dave, a 28-year-old advertising manager, who says he usually tries to vote.
 “I think everyone is ready for a change from the puppets in government, but you don’t have the right to talk if you don’t vote.”