The job market and economy, both topics that are constantly
on the minds of college students and constantly been discussed throughout the
election. Since the presidential outcome is going to affect the job market and
economy, you’d think every college student would be more than willing to vote,
right? However there are problems that occur. Many students want to vote but
can’t because they have an out of state drivers license. I discussed voting in
this election with some of my peers and a unified problem came to surface, that
students might not have time on Election Day to vote due to class and work
schedules. Many are cautious with their time and are afraid they will be
standing in a line for two hours to vote. It’s discouraging to see students
want to vote but however can’t when it comes down to it.
This
year college students are more politically active with “69% said they were
likely to vote”(Gross, 2012). Even though over half the faculty members of
four-year colleges or universities said it was important for them to encourage
their students to “…become agents of social change” it is shown that college
doesn’t effect student political participation (Gross, 2012).
So what will it
take for students to be inspired and go to the polls on Election Day?
The
2008 presidential election turnout from young people set an all time record
high, surpassing 2004 youth turnout numbers by 2.2 million (Falcone, 2008). When
comparing the youth turnout in 2008 and the 2012 pre-election polling this year,
the data shows their interest is dramatically lower in the 2012 election (Seib,
2012).
The
article, “Five Things to Watch on Election Night” discusses how Romney
supporters are confident that Obama will not be able to maintain the same
amount of support the youth showed Obama in 2008 (Seib, 2012). Romney has been
trying to appeal to young voters and get their votes using social media. The
Romney campaign’s social media account comments are not personable, awkward,
and negative inevitably hurting his chance of connecting with college students.
He wounded his relationship with students even more when he stated, “Students
should get as much education as they can afford” (Escobar, 2012) which didn’t
sit well with many college students.
Therefore
I feel that on Election Day if a student is able to make it to the polls they
are more likely to vote for Obama than Romney for president.
SOURCE:
This is a smart and articulate post that makes a clear argument about many of the challenges young voters face when trying to get to the polls. And~ I think you're right, until we change the options for how people vote and/or make Election Day a weekend day, it's going to be difficult for students who have class, and people who have jobs, to really exercise their right to vote.
ReplyDeleteI do agree partially with Sarah and Miss Leek. However.... I tutor men and women from South Korea, which takes a national holiday in the spring in order to vote. I asked many of my students if they had voted that day and surprisingly, a lot of them said they took the day to go do things like play at a park, go on a mini-vacation, etc. My point is, I think that no matter WHEN we change the Election day to, I feel like there are going to be those people who still won't vote. Either because they still have work (people work over on weekends all the time), or make up some other excuse to not go to the polls. There are so many (lame) excuses that people will use it's disgusting.
ReplyDeleteI found out something interesting about colleges and encouraging students to vote as well. Because colleges like ours are funded by the state, the democratic and republican groups on campus have rules and regulations on how they carry out their business and encouraging people to vote. I found that highly interesting and I can see why that is.