Youth should be encouraged to turn out to vote

Editor’s Note: Student Union’s weekly columns are a joint effort of the region’s high schools, the Bangor Daily News and Acadia Hospital. This week’s column was written by Hampden Academy students.

Only a handful of Hampden Academy students were present at the Hampden Democratic Caucus and no one under the age of 30 attended the Winterport caucus. The demographics of these two local caucuses reflect the current trend of declining numbers of youth voters and served as a portent that has voting forecasters worried about the turnout in the upcoming presidential election.

In an effort to combat low turnout, states across the country are, among other things, considering lowering the voting age to as young as 16.

Given the division of the country over major campaign issues, it is more important than ever for young people between 18 and 30 years of age to exercise their constitutionally mandated right to vote.

Voting restrictions have been a heated topic for debate since the days of the Boston Tea Party, when the right to vote was given only to white, property-owning men.

Since then, voting rights have been granted to women, people of different ethnic backgrounds and, most recently, to young adults.

Congress passed a voting rights act in 1971, changing the voting age from 21 to 18 when the fairness of enlisting 18-year-olds to fight and die for our country in the Vietnam War without being able to express their political views was debated.

Some state governments are proposing to lower the voting age to 16 or 17 in anticipation of low voter turnout in November. Proponents of the plan to lower the voting age point out that while many young adults under the age of 18 pay taxes, Medicare and Social Security out of their paychecks, they are not given a voice in the government – an action that is reminiscent of the Boston Tea Party days of taxation without representation.

Maine legislators even passed a bill on March 25, 2003, lowering the voting age to 17, but have since reconsidered.

Many students argue that being enrolled in history and civics classes makes them more aware of governmental proceedings than most 40-year-olds.

While lowering the voting age might serve as a quick fix for declining voting trends around the state and nation, a more permanent solution is still needed. Political activism among my peers at Hampden Academy is popular, but many students express reservations about the political system of which they are trying to become a part.

A senior at Hampden Academy, Chelsea Kingsbury, comments, “I think youth activism is low just because a very small portion of the political agenda is geared towards ‘kids.’ As far as I am concerned, politicians make no real effort to keep us interested.”

While politicians bill the children of our country as “our nation’s future,” they do not focus on the issues that interest young adults the most.

Hampden Academy Law and Ethics teacher Kathryn King agrees, stating, “I do not see the efforts made by politicians to define and analyze what youths have for concerns.”

Rather than working to combat our dependence on oil, pollution rates and addressing education problems, candidates primarily debate social security, prescription drug plans and tax cuts.

I do not believe that youth voters would be asking too much of our elected officials in demanding them to carve out time to truly understand the concerns of young people.

Another reason young voters do not turn out at the polls is the prevailing belief that young people have no impact on serious issues, and are to be appreciated, but promptly ignored, when politics turn serious.

“I do not believe we [young voters] are heard. I am just another ballot,” Chelsea Kingsbury interjects. The truth is, there are 40 million Americans between the ages of 18 and 30, one of the most powerful and most often overlooked population of voters.

Mrs. King adds, “Youth typically label political happenings as dry, dusty and dead – something that old people do to fill up their free time.”

Politicians and their lackluster enthusiasm for young voters are not totally to blame; young voters need to realize that with the last presidential election separated by approximately 500,000 votes, 40 million votes could have drastically affected the direction our country has moved in.

For politically savvy students, resident activists and other teens wishing to be involved in the upcoming election, there are several informational Web sites that can help clarify the voting dilemma.

A popular advertising campaign appropriately named “Choose or Lose” is now airing on MTV with a focus on recruiting 30 million 18-to-30-year-old voters for the pending election. The Web site http://www.mtv.com/chooseorloose/boasts an impressive database of facts and figures, biographies and platform information from both George W. Bush and John Kerry, as well as a message board, where other teens have sounded off on pressing political issues, such as gay marriage and the war in Iraq.

Another political site devoted to making the voting process accessible to young voters is http://www.rockthevote.org, where teens can register to vote and peruse candidate information.

While Maine boasts one of the highest percentages of youth voter turnouts in the nation, the numbers have declined 18 percent since 1978, according to the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning Engagement.

Whether the blame is to rest on the shoulders of politicians, American culture or incorrect assumptions about our political system, something must be done to increase voter turnout.

While lowering the voting age is a temporary solution, a more permanent and perhaps more effective solution could be found by asking our politicians to make an honest effort to understand the issues which most interest our nation’s young adults.

Schools participating in Student Union include Hampden Academy, Brewer High School, John Bapst Memorial High School, Old Town High School, Mount Desert Island Regional High School, Stearns High School in Millinocket, Nokomis Regional High School, Hermon High School and Schenck High School in East Millinocket.