 |
Last year the Center for Voting and Democracy and the Chicago-based Midwest Democracy Center announced an essay contest for young people to address the question, "Why don't we vote?" Given the all-time low in youth turnout in the 1998 congressional elections and rampant evidence of plummeting political participation by young people, the question clearly is timely. We also wanted to ask young people what they thought we should do about this decline in participation.
We offered cash incentives (see description of the contest and prizes), but they were small and participants' chances necessarily low. That's why we were so gratified to receive nearly 9,000 essays from young Americans across the nation. It was a challenge to identify our winning essays, but with the help of a notable group of judges - ranging from a Hollywood film director to a former White House general counsel -- and interns, volunteers and staff members, we have done so.
The essays were a revelation. Not all were well-written. Not all were profound in their insights. But the creativity of many proposals, the range of perspectives and the depth of feeling about this critical question to the future of our democracy were important to see. Whatever might be said about young Americans, they deserve to be taken very seriously. This essay contest only underlined that point for us, and we hope to conduct more such contests in the coming years.
We urge you to visit the following links:
|
|
Click on the below links for samples of student essays submitted by young people in the area. |
The Prizes
The Question"Political participation by young people is plummeting. What changes in our electoral system would increase political participation by young people and why is that important to you and people like you?" Potential reforms to consider include, but are not limited to; lowering the voting age, better ballot access for third parties and independents, required debates between all candidates for office, vote-by-mail, election-day voter registration, internet voting, proportional representation, cumulative voting, instant runoff voting, a parliamentary system and expanded use of the initiative and referendum. Essays
should go beyond well-known reforms such as campaign finance
and term limits. Winning essays will be persuasive, thoughtful,
well-written and innovative.
How
winning essays were chosen
Click
here for a description of how winning
essays were chosen by our judges.
Links
to some of the media coverage of the contest
Christian
Science Monitor, October 19: discussion of voter turnout
with a link to the contest. |