After interviewing three people from my school about their political beliefs, I found that two of them
identified as democrat (liberal) and the other one wasn’t super aware about politics to identify himself
as democrat or republican. Since all of them were underage, they couldn’t actually vote, but all of them
planned to. The two liberal students were highly engaged in this previous midterm election, rooting for
Beto for win. On the other hand, the last student was unsure about who he would support given his lack
of awareness, but seemed to lean towards Beto given his friends and family’s support for Beto.
In terms of the students’ character and qualifications, one of the student was in Debate, one
was a member of our school’s Junior Student of America association, while the last one was part of
neither organization. It seemed like those who knew their political affiliation were also part of some
political / current events organization because they seemed passionate about politics. However, those
who are already politically unaware don’t tend to involve themselves. This can speak to why there is a
low youth voter turnout. Students who weren’t exposed to the daily news or made friends with people
who were politically aware probably find it overwhelming to begin diving into politics since it’s such a
vast field. Most current events build off of previous events, so not knowing those previous events,
creates a domino effect of unawareness and seems very daunting to tackle for someone who doesn’t
feel very passionate about staying aware. In the future, the two students who were politically involved
plan to vote in the future and can’t wait until the 2020 election since they just turned 18 and are now
able to exercise their right to vote. However, although the final student wasn’t educated on politics, he
still planned to vote in the end because he plans to slowly start immersing himself in politics by the time
he turns 18 (which won’t be for another year and a half).
The two liberal students were females and they are both Indian. One of them turned 18 about a
month ago, while the other is turning 18 in a couple weeks. They are both religious in their respective
religions. Both of these students supported Beto and what he stood for. They support gun control, are
pro-choice, and believe in equality for all no matter race and especially, gender. The last student was
male, also Indian, and he is semi-religious. He is 17, so he maybe wasn’t as involved in the elections
because he isn’t as older.
The reasons that voter turnout is so low is that most people feel as if their vote doesn’t matter in
the long run. They believe that they are just one of so many million people who are also voting, so their
vote doesn’t count towards anything and won’t actually change anything. Even if they do have strong
ties to a party, what’s to say that their vote will elect their desired candidate? Especially, with the
difference in the popular vote and electoral college vote, people truly feel like the result they fairly
deserve isn’t what they are receiving. In addition, people are often lazy and don’t want to go through the
effort of registering to vote and then actually going to vote. Specifically, this issue lies with youth voter
turnout. Younger voters are less likely to vote than older ones. Even though this last midterm election
saw an influx of young voters, we often see a large disparity between youth and older voters. Also, in
general, there seems to be a decreasing party activity in general as people realize how polarizing
politics and political affiliations can be. Finally, people find other ways to get in involved in politics, such
as by donating or religiously following someone’s campaign that they don’t actually vote themselves.
Some solutions to this low voter turnout, especially for the youth, is to educate on the
importance of voting. High schools can also hold yearly voter registration drives to register students
who are too lazy to do so themselves. They can have the forms and pass them along and one
collective group of students can go deliver the forms. Another way is to make the process of voting and
even registering easier in general, such as converting it to technology. Finally, we could be more
encouraging of youth voters and make them feel as if they do have a say in the government, since they
are the future of America. They will be more inclined and supported to vote, and could possible alter
future elections as they more increasingly liberal.