Why young people don’t vote?

LAUREN REILLY NEWS EDITOR LMR722@CABRINI EDU

Young adults between the ages of 18 and 29 make up 40.7 million, or 21 percent, of the eligible voters in the United States; however, in the 2000 presidential election, only 46 percent of voters meeting the age qualification marked their ballots.

Being the year of a presidential election, countless organizations encourage the registration and participation of American citizens to exercise their right to vote—the promotion of involvement is ubiquitous. Despite the efforts of the innumerable associations dedicated to inform, intrigue and implicate, many young Americans entitled to vote choose not to.

Although the right to vote is frequently overlooked by some, the privilege has drastically evolved. Changes began in 1870 with the ratification of the 15th Amendment, which stated that the right to vote must not be denied to anyone based on race, color or previous conditions of servitude. However, many states continued to disenfranchise minority voters until the approval of the Civil Rights Act in 1965 that codified the 15th Amendment, clarifying the prohibition of discriminatory infractions, such as poll taxes and literacy tests, which some states practiced in order to establish white supremacy.

In 1971, just years after the 15th Amendment modifications, Congress passed the 26th Amendment, reducing the qualification of the voting age to 18 in all federal, state and local elections. Prior to these principle alterations, in 1920, the ratification of the 19th Amendment gave women the right to vote.

Though these laws were new to the previous generation, many young adults have not begun to utilize these freedoms. The U.S. Census Bureau surveyed people who did not vote in the 1996 presidential election and determined some common reasons why adults between the ages of 18 and 29 evaded the polls. The results showed that 21.5 percent reported being too busy, 16.6 percent were not interested in the election, 14.9 percent were unable to vote due to illness or an emergency, 13.7 percent did not like the candidates and 34 percent had other reasons.

Dr. Jolyon Girard, a history and political science professor, thinks that many young adults do not relate to modern politics.

“Young people don’t see the issues as fundamentally affecting