Getting Young Adults To Vote

[Anastasia13]

What can we do to get more young adults to vote?

[Era Might]

Get dairygirl to make a poll.

[Catherine Therese]

Create a first home-buyers grant, and/or a first business-owner's grant. Basically an economic stimulus that gets them to invest in property, or purchase a business. Once a property owner, they've got a greater stake in the outcomes of political decisions and they'll be much more likely to vote. 

 

Mind you, here in Oz we just introduced a monetary penalty for NOT voting. You may think this an encroachment upon liberty, but really, its a way of ensuring that even lazy, apathetic or wilfully stupid people have the opportunity to EXERCISE liberty by having a say. 

 

Personally, I think that the option NOT to vote really only cultivates political torpor. 

[Catherine Therese]

(I'm not opinionated AT ALL.)  :saint2:

[Tab'le De'Bah-Rye]

I hope the amount of people that choose to vote in the united states of america increases overtime in the not to distant future. I believe it will unite to some degree more deeply the U.S.A. Perhaps catherine is correct and that compulsory voting is the only sure option for democracy in the world.  An i am interested catherine how you said compulsory voting has people actually exercising liberty by having a say in there vote, never thought about it really.

Edited October 1, 2013 by Tab'le Du'Bah-Rye

[EmilyAnn]

I was 18 when we had the last general election, and I went with a friend to vote. But several friends of mine didn't. Part of the problem was, I think, that they just didn't feel like it was clear for them. There was just a lack of clarity as to what any party really believed in or stood for, and they didn't feel able to cast their vote for anyone. As I recall, it felt like there was a lot of mud-slinging and very little of anything else, and it was difficult to make an informed decision based on "the other party sucks, vote for me!" So, I think clarity is part of the answer. 

[CrossCuT]

When I was a freshman in college a girl in one of my classes said that for the current presidential election she was going to vote for whose ever name sounded prettiest.

[blazeingstar]

When I encounter people who don't vote its becuase they can't understand what a politician stands for.  Plus, as much as we pretend that employers are flexible to voting, many are not...because they expect it to come out of someone else's time (dropping kids off to school, taking care of an elderly parent, supper time).

 

Online voting (if we could ever do that and prevent fraud) would create a ton more voters.

[Basilisa Marie]

Be like Australia and make it illegal not to vote. 

[God the Father]

In a democracy, the government reflects the electorate. The former is already selfish, distracted, and scatterbrained enough for me to really be concerned about expanding the latter.

[TheresaThoma]

Mail.In.Ballots. W

here I live you have the option to be on a permanent mail in ballot list and it is so nice. I don't have to worry about finding time to take off of school or work to go vote, find my proper polling place, figure out when it is open, stand there in line. Now I just get my ballot sent to me I fill it out and I send it back. I think there is a two week window for mail in ballots. I believe that by going to the mail in ballots there was an increase in people actually voting. I also know that on my campus they have people out asking if you are registered to vote (at your current address) and if not they have forms there to fill out to get registered.

I think the biggest thing we need to realize is that young adults are VERY busy (school, work, maybe even a young family). So if there is an easier way (ie mail in ballots) then that can really help. I also like the mail in ballots because I have the actual ballot right there and I can look stuff up as I am filling it out. I felt more informed about each item, I also felt like I made better decisions because I could really take my time and think over it.

The other issue I can see is that young adults move around quite a bit and trying to figure out where you are supposed to vote can be very confusing. For example when I was going to school in Saint Louis I still was considered a Colorado voter, so even though I spent most of the year in Saint Louis and I had NO clue about the CO election (I couldn't even tell you one single candidate's name) I still voted in the CO elections, by mail in ballot.

[John Ryan]

In a democracy, the government reflects the electorate. The former is already selfish, distracted, and scatterbrained enough for me to really be concerned about expanding the latter.

 

My sentiments exactly. Why is it that we equate more people casting a vote to be an intrinsic good? I am very much a Rousseauian democrat, but I certainly do not believe the blind leading the blind to be a political philosophy to adopt. If the people were civically educated, then that would be another story, but people are politically moronic in our day and age.

[Winchester]

Violence

 

 

Violence

 

 

Summarized it.

[Tab'le De'Bah-Rye]

I was 18 when we had the last general election, and I went with a friend to vote. But several friends of mine didn't. Part of the problem was, I think, that they just didn't feel like it was clear for them. There was just a lack of clarity as to what any party really believed in or stood for, and they didn't feel able to cast their vote for anyone. As I recall, it felt like there was a lot of mud-slinging and very little of anything else, and it was difficult to make an informed decision based on "the other party smells of elderberries, vote for me!" So, I think clarity is part of the answer. 

 

 

I think most of the parites should have websites now with at least there basic policies, tell your friends that next election and add an " and if you really care plug"

[Tab'le De'Bah-Rye]

Tell the people that the wrong vote won't send you to hell!   THE WRONG VOTE WONT SEND YOU TO HELL!