How would you explain the low voter turnout amongst young people in the 2010 election?

I’m not young and I did vote, but I can say that a large number of my young friends and acquaintances said they did not vote because they felt none of the candidates were worthy.

I don’t have any sources, but I’m keen on hearing responses to this from Jellies. Good question.

When I was a senior in AP Government and Politics (which is by no means any source of authority) it was my understanding that: 1) young adults do not typically vote in numbers as large as older citizens and 2) it is even less likely that young adults will vote in non-Presidential elections. It is, nevertheless, disconcerting that voters in my age bracket didn’t turn out to vote in a Midterm election.

I am twenty-one and I voted. Many of my friends voted, but I associate with academic, concerned individuals. The few friends I have who did not vote (whom I know relatively well) are illegal immigrants and ineligible to vote. There was also one particular individual who was absolutely swamped with work and did not find time to eat and sleep, let alone vote. He should have filed to vote by mail as we knew ahead of time that election day would coincide with our academic midterms.

I have met, but am not friends with, many younger folk who believe their vote does not amount to anything and skip out on voting as a result. They usually bitch about the government the most. C’est la vie.

Young people don’t really understand how politics work. Obama’s first two years were some of the most productive years any president has ever kicked off with and that is a fact regardless of what side of the aisle you sit on. Pelosi’s congress was extraordinarily effective and passed an overwhelming number of bills with which to line senatorial birdcages.

Unfortunately, many young people expected Obama to go in and clean house, turn everything around, wave a magic wand and fix every problem in the nation. They didn’t see that and they felt jaded by the whole thing. Obama was inspiring and I have a feeling that in 2012 he will inspire the youth vote once again, but I don’t think many congressional candidates focused on it the way Obama did in 2008.

Young voters turn out for presidential elections, but not midterms. It’s harder to see the effect of midterm elections, so they don’t see it as a big deal.

@crazyivan But every voter who wasn’t young understood the complexities and knew it would take awhile to fix things? I mean, if anything, I think young voters understood that more than other voters. I’ve found young voters were more involved and more realistic than older voters by a 4–1 margin.

I’ve voted in every election since I came of age but many of my friends do not. They are disgusted, overwhelmed and confused by campaign advertising that more often than not, doesn’t state any concrete positions for the candidate him/herself, but slings filth at the opponent. It makes it look like all candidates fell out of the same processing machine and voting for one is irrelevant.

I wouldn’t say that young voters are less enlightened than older voters, because older voters often vote stupidly and for stupid reasons.

I do think there might simply be a cultural or psychological difference that motivates young people differently than old people. Young people tend to be more narcissistic and individualistic than older people. This may tie into the perception of consequence; it’s easier for a young person to vote when they get to believe their vote makes a huge difference or defines their own personality like a badge. Whereas older voters are more comfortable being a cog in a machine.

That’s just speculation though. Anyway, I’m young and I voted.

@papayalily I think the fact that the youth vote didn’t turn out proves my point. You said that youth vote turns out for presidential elections but not for midterms. Well, that is true of every demographic. In every demographic the turnout is much lower for midterms.

The point is that in 2008, young voters turned out in record numbers. Far more young voters turned out than had before in the presidential election. Thus I assume the question is why a record number of youth votes didn’t turn out similarly during the midterm. The percentage drop off in the youth vote was far and away higher than what would typically be expected between a presidential election and a midterm.

Also, your observation based on anecdotal evidence that younger voters understand politics better than older voters by a 4 to 1 margin is clearly flawed. I am a young(ish) voter, but I think it would be nonsensical, naive and arrogant to assume that I understand the political process better than people who have been following politics longer than I’ve been wiping my own backside. Surely there are examples of more informed young voters and less informed older voters, but they are a minority within a minority within a minority.

Disenchantment with the progress made since Obama was elected. I think young people were inspired and had high expectations of “change.”

Perhaps many people were of the same opinion as my husband. He told me he wasn’t voting because “They’re all douchebags, so why do I give a shit?”

Russ Feingold, Alan Grayson, and Joe Sestak were certainly not douchebags. Off the top of my head.

There are actually some pretty awesome politicians. And non-awesome politicians can be more or less douchey. Douchery is not a binary scale.

I’m young, and I voted, but I think that has a lot to do with the importance that was placed on civic responsibility since I was young. At home, among my friends, and in school I was always encouraged to vote and in our history and government classes we would devote days before the elections to going over the candidates and propositions. (Yes, I live in a very politically active town.)
I’m not sure I can pinpoint what exactly the reason for low turnout among young voters and such great turnout for those 65+, but I know one of the reasons that I’ve seen talked about in political journals and politics classes is simply that 65+ citizens have time to vote. They don’t attend classes for most of the day, many (but certainly not all) are retired, few have children to tend to during the day (aside from grandchildren perhaps).
Personally, I’m not sure those count as excuse to not vote. It takes five minutes or could be done via snail mail, but that’s a reason I’ve heard that makes some sense to me.

@crazyivan Just because you don’t agree with it doesn’t mean it’s flawed. And this is just based on the people I talk to in real life, I’d never claim that it’s a scientific thing. But the number of Boomers and Gen Xers I’ve talked to who don’t care, and don’t involve themselves, and don’t really think about it is really shockingly high (to me). The younger people that I talk to, while they may not have lived as long, most of them put more effort and time into understanding the process and thinking about what they want in a candidate and listening to the debate. I don’t think they’re as good as the Boomers and Gen Xers that give a shit, but I do think they’re drastically better than the older voters who wouldn’t dream of turning off America’s Next Top Model and listening to the news.

A lot of the young people I know didn’t vote because they feel it doesn’t matter, they didn’t like any of the candidates, and/or they don’t care about politics at all.

@Qingu “I do think there might simply be a cultural or psychological difference that motivates young people differently than old people. Young people tend to be more narcissistic and individualistic than older people. This may tie into the perception of consequence; it’s easier for a young person to vote when they get to believe their vote makes a huge difference or defines their own personality like a badge. Whereas older voters are more comfortable being a cog in a machine.”

Unfortunately, that does make sense lol.

@diavolobella Sometimes I vote just to keep these unworthy characters out of office!!

I fit into that demographic, and I did not vote. That isn’t typical behavior for me, I have tried to make it a point to vote ever since I’ve been old enough to do so.

I simply did not feel very strongly about anything this time around, so, I didn’t vote. However, I would say that my friends and family in the same demographic were split down the middle. Between those that never or rarely vote.. and those that did and usually do vote.

Usually most will say that it doesn’t matter who you vote for because they are all crooked.

Young people generally tend not to vote. I voted, but I didn’t vote in the last election.
There is a profound knowledge that your single, solitary vote is practically worthless. If your vote is worthless, then why take the trouble? Yes, I know that votes accumulate.

Perhaps young Liberals, availing themselves of typical youthful short-sightedness, felt sure that their party would win anyway.

I voted, but I can understand the idea of not voting.

I mean, we basically only have 2 choices, both of which are horse shit. I mean, the only difference between the Republicans and the Dems is that they put different big businesses ahead of the people they’re elected to represent.

And for the record, I am a young voter. Almost 22 here.

Traditionally, the 18–25 demographic doesn’t vote because they don’t own property. I think Obama appealed to them and inspired them to vote in the ‘08 election. There generally isn’t such a high turn out for midterm elections or any other elections, just the major ones. I am curious to see what the future holds… I feel like when there are social and environmental issues that are hot and at risk, younger people are more likely to vote.

It is a lot easier to sit back and complain than to do anything proactive about it.

The hype surrounding Obama was massive, that’s why young people turned out in record numbers for the 2008 election. I don’t know how the numbers compare to other previous elections, but I suspect that the young people who didn’t vote were just feeling lazy and uninspired on election day as usual.