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C. EMISON KNOXVILLE, TN High school student Born: 1982 Essay themes: Making voting easier; allow voters to register on Election Day, making candidates' views accessible; required publicized debates ROBIN PEEK JENNIFER L. LANGFORD SHANEA GETHERS Essay themes: Making voting easier; allow voters to register on Election Day, making candidates' views accessible; required publicized debates It has been discussed for years, examined by political analysts, focused on by the media, and combated by organizations such as yours. The topic that I am referring to is the fact that American young people so often do not use their opportunity to vote in local, state, and federal elections. Many factors including societal influences and inconvenience lead many young people to forfeit their voting rights until they are older. If this problem is to be corrected, reformers must consider not only new places or times to vote, but also the root of the problem: Most young people are apathetic about voting because they have inherited disinterest over elections, as well as a general lack of faith in politicians, from their parents. One relatively easy way to increase voter participation is to make voting more convenient. Many young people who would otherwise vote are deterred because they cannot find time on Election Day to go to the polls. Whether students or members of the work force, young people often have inflexible schedules and cannot justify skipping a class or taking an extra hour from work to go vote. Even if the polls are kept open until 8:00 P.M., many young people have children to transport from childcare and families to attend to. Schools and employers should be required to give all eligible voters a break on election day if the citizen intends to vote but cannot find time to do so. Another simple way to attract voters to the polls is to allow voters to register to vote on Election Day. This would eliminate one step from the voting process and thus make the voting process more convenient. One negative aspect of this idea is that it would increase the time required to vote on Election Day. However, if separate areas were set up to process voters efficiently few problems would occur. The most serious issue surrounding voter participation is the lack of trust potential voters have for politicians. Many people, young and old, find it hard to vote when they do not care who wins. The incentive to vote is the promise of change; but if no change is in sight, most people will not become involved in the election process. Young people especially are susceptible to this apathetic view of politics. Candidates should be able to distinguish themselves through innovative ideas and willingness to take action on behalf of their causes. Unfortunately, many political hopefuls get lost in the shuffle of "control politics". In order to gain office, the candidate must gain the favor of incumbent politicians, those already in control. By the time a political hopeful has worked himself through the party ranks, he has become so indebted to his party and financial contributors that most of his innovation and willingness to take a stand are all but gone. If a political hopeful chooses to try to win the race without either endorsement from elected officials or large monetary contributions, his chances of winning are slim. Most likely, the majority of the voting public will never hear him because his incumbent competition has the financial backing to paste his face on billboards and television advertisements across the precinct. The best way to solve this problem is to require televised debates between all interested candidates. Even if networks and cable stations do not want to televise the debates, most communities have a public access station. Preliminary debates could be held for all candidates within a particular level of government. For example, debates among mayoral candidates, candidates for city council, and candidates for the city law director could be held on one date. Further into the campaign, the debates could focus on each office. Such a requirement would allow candidates who have relatively little chance of winning to voice their opinions and ideas and would restore voter confidence. Many young Americans do not believe that voting affects their lives. However, voting is the most crucial part of citizenship: If the public is not involved in elections, politicians will have no accountability. With no accountability they will be free to make decisions guided by their own interests instead of the interests of the people. With a few changes, voter participation will once again rise to acceptable levels. Essay themes: Political issues, identification with candidates As we move into the 21st century, the interest of young people
in our electoral system is plummeting. If young people were
shown why their involvement was important, maybe we would become
more interested in politics. If they were shown how to become
more involved, then that would make us more interested in what
is going on in our world. The two main drawbacks for young people
becoming involved in politics are a lack of understanding the
electoral system, and lack of identification with candidates. Young people are more likely to get involved in the electoral system if they can relate to the candidates. A candidate running for president should try to have a issue such as higher education to catch the attention of young people. Young people like to know there will be funding for them to go to school if they want to continue their education. Many young people already in college would like to see more scholarships, financial aid, and loans available to people without children. Young people would also like to see someone in office fight to have more computers in colleges, because you can type your papers at school and not at home. If a candidate would run on some of these issues, then young people would get involved, because young people would think they are taking us seriously and that the candidate is not just thinking about the older people. Young people do not like to see our leaders raise money for the professors at universities to get paid more. This would get young people talking among friends and then perhaps a lot of young people would be involved. Another thing that young people get angry at is Social Security. Politicians keep saying Social Security is going to go broke and that by the time we reach the age to draw Social Security there will not be any funds left. But the thing they will not tell people is why the program is going broke. If we are paying the money, then the program should not go broke, if the money is being spent right. Apparently the money is being borrowed for other programs, and these programs are suppose to be better than Social Security. So if they would stop borrowing money from the program then the people who have paid in Social Security over their working lives would get it and be secure in their retirement years. Young people would like to know someone is going into office with the attitude to help every age group and not just the older people or the younger people. All age groups would like to know that they could trust the person they put in office to fight hard for them. Young people do not understand the importance of voting every time there is a election. We do not think our one vote will matter. Maybe if we were shown how our one vote would make the difference, then we would go vote and become involved. If there were some way we could see how much our one vote would help or would not help, then more young people would become more involved. If candidates would act like young people's votes matter, then more young people would think that voting was important. Older candidates act like that their running for office for the older people not the younger people. Young people would get more involved with the electoral system if they understood it better, were able to identify with a candidate, and were made feel like their vote was important. So when candidates are running for office they should remember to not forget the young people , because if young people did get involved they could make the difference between winning the election or losing the election. Young people need to remember that if we would get involved and try to learn the importance of voting that maybe our nation would become a better place to live. Essay themes: Encourage youth voting by making voter registration easier and voting more accessible; allow teenagers to be more independent and free-thinking Participation in politics is also a matter of convenience. Election Day as a holiday would bring more people to the polls. Also, if the opportunity to register at the polls was available, I think that would encourage more participation. Internet voting is favored if the safety of the Internet was drastically increased. Teenagers have been conditioned to think what parents or peers think and act the same, as well. Decisions have been made for us. We have yet to have a chance where our own ideas and values are truly wanted and respected. This, above all, is the one thing that would increase young peoples' political participation. 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 to people like you? It is my opinion that in order to get the younger generation to vote, the system must be changed to become much more convenient, more accessible, and definitely more affordable. Currently, the Internet plays a key role in the lives of our society today. The Internet explosion dominates most of us. The average American either has a computer in his/her home or has access to one. I feel that voter participation among young people would increase if a secure system was developed that would allow people to take advantage of a tool that so many of us use on a daily basis. Voting over the Internet would be both convenient and accessible for young people. While I realize that some security issues could become issues, the computerized system could be password protected in order to ensure that the proper person is actually casting the vote. I feel that this single change would increase participation among young people today. With the fast pace society that we live in today, especially with young people who want everything instantly and convenient, the location of voting machines and districts should be revamped. Why couldn't voting occur at the places where people work, or at the mall or even near the movie theatres? These are places where young people gather on a regular basis. In essence, I am suggesting that we should take the voting to the people. I feel again that if the opportunity to vote is convenient and accessible more young people would take advantage of voting. Without this some of these incentives, I feel that voting will not be increased among young people. Today, we are emphasizing and promoting young leaders in the new millennium. However, as young people try to pursue their American dreams as political leaders (i.e., Congressmen and -women, senators, presidents, etc.) many young people are becoming disenfranchised because they are not able to compete or participate due to the financial burden of running for offices, and the low pay that goes with many of the political offices. Recognizing that in many cases only the rich will be able to compete in the political arena, many young people have "dropped out" of the race never to enter again. One way to remedy this problem would be to have campaign finance reform at both the state and local level. This could be accomplished through public financing which would help to subsidize the campaigns of young people who are interested in pursuing political careers. It is my opinion that more young people would be drawn to the polls, accessible voting machines or over the Internet if they are able to see more young people like themselves on the ballots. In conclusion, it is critical that we bring our young people
back into the political world. It is critical that the young
leaders that are being trained today have an opportunity to
become the outstanding leaders and able to take their places
at the decision making table in the new millennium. This is
even more critical for African American youth who need to rise
up and take their perspective places in the political arena
in order to make a difference in our society. This can only
happen if doors of opportunity are opened to our young people
today. We cannot and we must not continue to lose our young
people in the political world. People who can implement some
or all of these changes should begin to implement legislation
to regain the young generation. Thanks for the opportunity to
respond to this question and for your time in evaluating my
response. |