Last Friday marked the end of the annual campus drive to get more students registered to vote.
Though today's youth are said to be distrusting of politics, cynicism and disheartenment are no excuses for the consistently low voter turnout among young people, including SIUC students. Turnout among SIUC students in past Undergraduate Student Government, Carbondale City Council and off-year primary elections has been less than impressive. In last April's City Council elections, the three student-dominated precincts recorded a paltry 191 in student-voter turnout, compared to 558 students in 1997.
Although presidential elections are said to have a higher turnout than non-presidential ones, you can't tell by the numbers among students here. Out of those students registered to vote in the 2000 presidential election, only 29 percent in student-dominated precincts bothered to show up at the polls, down 20 percent from the 1996 election. In 1992 and 1988, students raked in at 51 percent and 61 percent, respectively. In the 1998 mid-term election, less than 40 percent turned out.
These voting trends unfortunately hold true nationwide as well. In the 1996 presidential election, only 31 percent of 18- to 20-year-olds voted, as did 33 percent of 21- to 24-year-olds, according to the Federal Election Commission.
Voter turnout among all Americans has steadily dropped, except among older voters. Some 64 percent of voters 45 to 64 years old voted in 1996. Voters 65 and older accounted for 61 percent, according to the FEC. Yet, less than 50 percent of American adults voted in the 1996 presidential election, and only 36 percent voted in November 1998. Today's youth, particularly college students, can not complain about politics running amuck when so few bother to vote.
And what are the rest of the state and the nation to think when SIUC students and other hell-raisers tear up the Strip during Halloween 2000 in droves, but can't even crack 30 percent in voter turnout when it really matters? If the last presidential election showed anything, it was that every vote does indeed count. Young people are increasingly being targeted by would-be candidates and elected officials, as evident by Secretary of State Colin Powell's appearance on MTV last Thursday. Speaking of MTV, the music television network has been urging young people to the polls for nearly a decade.
After winning the presidential election in 1992, Bill Clinton tapped MTV and its Rock the vote campaign as being instrumental in his victory over George Bush. All of this shows that what young people have to say truly does matter, but so few use their biggest sounding board: the voting booth. Students can still register to vote for the March 19 primary election. The deadline is Feb. 19. If students want to be heard, go out and register today and save the cynicism for later.
Published on 11/17/05; 12:24:44 PM
