Over the past few years America's youth has become a leading force in the nation's political stage. Teens not only looked forward to turning eighteen for bragging rights but also looked forward to being able to vote, and boy did they vote. Since Occupy wall street, college students orchestrated their own occupy movements, gathering hundreds or thousands of students who allow themselves to be well informed on current affairs and a host of other things. The fact of the matter is, college students are getting out and trying to make a difference in any way shape or form. They are trying to let their voices be heard, and trying to make sure their vote counts.
I remember as a kid, not able to vote, watching MTV or VH1 and catching all of the celebrities showing off their fashionable "rock the vote" t-shirts, what a perfect form of spreading the word, truly embedding in the minds of all the children watching television that the celebrities vote and when it comes time for them to vote, they should vote too. That campaign stuck with me for life, and I make sure that I "rock the vote" when it comes time to do so. It has come to my attention that new laws are making it harder for the younger set to be able to vote. The new laws in Florida are consist of having to send their registration back in 48 hours after receiving them, compared to the old 10 days. The problem I have with this is that the younger set are actually making the effort to get out and vote, and as a good democratic country, we should be making it easier for every single person in this nation, rather than making it harder.
If we make it harder for someone to register to vote, we are changing the outcome of the future election. We watched how close the election was between president Bush and the previous president elect, Al Gore. What if a large number of people were not able to vote because they could not get their registration in on time, and those people were going to be voting for Al Gore? The out come of the election may have been very different. Also, Florida is considered a battle ground state, perhaps Florida should make sure it is as easy as possible for residents to get out and vote, for the sole purpose that Florida always has a real possibility of being the swing vote. Lets move forward, lets make voting easier and not harder.
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1678162/florida-laws-primary-young-voters.jhtml
Brianna,
ReplyDeleteI'm not convinced that the youth (18-24) vote is a "leading force" but I think it's great that the MTV campaign stuck with you. MTV is brilliant sometimes and they struck a chord with our generation by having luminaries like Paris Hilton come on in tiny "Rock the Vote" t-shirts. I only wish that more of our generation was as impressionable as you and I were! In the last Presidential election, voters between 18-24 made the smallest contribution to the total vote. (Only 48% of those in the age group votes)
You make salient points about the recent voter registration controversy and I, like you, hope this is put to rest soon!