thumb|400px|alt=Congressional voting trends by race and age in the United States, 1966-2010. Youth 18-24 vote at a twenty percent lower rate than the overall population.|Congressional voting trends by race and age in the United States, 1966–2010

The youth vote in the United States is the cohort of 18–24 year-olds as a voting demographic, Many policy areas specifically affect the youth of the United States, such as education issues and the juvenile justice system; however, young people also care about issues that affect the population as a whole, such as national debt and war.

Young people have the lowest turnout, though as the individual ages, turnout increases to a peak at the age of 50 and then falls again.

Ever since 18-year-olds were given the right to vote in 1971 through the 26th Amendment to the Constitution, youth have been under represented at the polls as of 2003. In 1976, one of the first elections in which 18-year-olds were able to vote, 18–24 year-olds made up 18 percent of all eligible voters in America, but only 13 percent of the actual voters – an under-representation of one-third. In 1998, out of the 13 percent of eligible youth voters in America, only five percent voted. In the Democratic primaries for the 2008 U.S. presidential election, the number of youth voters tripled and even quadrupled in some states compared to the 2004 elections. In 2008, Barack Obama spoke about the contributions of young people to his election campaign outside of just voter turnout.

History of the Youth Vote

Initially, the framers of the U.S. Constitution and state voting laws restricted the role of young people in American politics. States uniformly set 21 as the voting age, although Connecticut debated lowering it to 18 in 1819. In general, young Americans were expected to be deferential to their elders, and John Adams famously cautioned that expanding suffrage would encourage "lads from twelve to twenty-one" to demand the right to vote.

Yet as the suffrage expanded to non-property-holders in the early 1800s, young people came to play a larger role in politics. During the rise of Jacksonian Democracy, youths often organized Young Men’s clubs in support of the Democratic, National Republican, Whig, or Anti-Masonic parties. Presidential campaigns often organized torch-lit rallies of thousands of marchers, and analyses of these club rosters show that members were often in their late teens and early twenties. The demands of popular democracy – which often drew voter turnouts above 80% of eligible voters – led political machines to rely on youths as cheap, enthusiastic campaigners for political machines. In 1848, Abraham Lincoln suggested that the Whig Party in Springfield, Illinois, make use of "the shrewd, wild boys about town, whether just of age or a little under age."

In the mid-to-late 1800s, young men enthusiastically cast their "virgin vote" when turning 21. Voting was often seen as a rite of passage and public declaration of manhood, adulthood, and citizenship. Young African-Americans participated in voting and campaigning where they could vote, and young women, though prevented from voting themselves, followed politics closely, read partisan newspapers, and argued politics with the young men in their lives.

Around the turn of the 20th century, political reformers reduced party’s reliance on young activists in an effort to clean up politics. Youth turnout fell shortly thereafter, especially among first time "virgin voters," whose turnout declined 53% between 1888 and 1924. As turnout fell in the early 20th century, young people played less role in campaigning. Though individual campaigns, like those of Theodore Roosevelt in 1904, Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1932, and John F. Kennedy in 1960, specifically appealed to youth, political parties generally showed less systematic interest in the youth vote.

Sustained interest in lowering the voting age began during World War II when Congress passed legislation allowing young men to be drafted at the age of eighteen. While a few individual states began to allow 18-year-old voting before the Civil Rights Extension Act of 1970 and 26th Amendment (1971) lowered the voting age to eighteen, efforts to lower the voting age generally garnered little support.

By the late 1960s and early 1970s, young people had shown themselves to be vital political actors and were demanding more of a role in American public life. The qualities associated with youth – young people's idealism, lack of "vested interests," and openness to new ideas – came to be seen as positive qualities for a political system that seemed to be in crisis. Rising high school graduation rates and young people's increasing access to political information also spurred re-evaluations of 18-year-olds' fitness for voting rights. In addition, Civil Rights organizations, the National Education Association, and youth-centered groups formed coalitions that coordinated lobbying and grassroots efforts aimed at lowering the voting age on both the state and national level.

Variables affecting the youth vote in the United States

Between the ages of 18 and 24, youth have the potential to graduate high school, move away to college and change residences multiple times as they begin their career. As youth change residences often, the local issues and elections relevant to the area may not affect the youth yet or be significant and change from residence to residence. By 2018, Rock the Vote, a platform used by grassroots campaigns,

Another organization working on registering young voters nationwide is The Civics Center, a sister organization of Rock the Vote. It has launched a campaign that engages with over 1,000 schools nationwide.

Efforts before the 1970s include:

  • Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
  • Black Panthers
  • Young Lords
  • Youth Liberation of Ann Arbor

Later efforts include:

  • 18 in '08
  • College Republicans and College Democrats of America all over country
  • Declare Yourself
  • League of Young Voters
  • MTV
  • When We All Vote, co-chaired by Michelle Obama
  • Voters of Tomorrow
  • World Wrestling Entertainment's Smackdown Your Vote If the use of technology were to be fully integrated into politics, the youth and adult groups would be equally active in politics.

It not only provides them with the information they need to form their political beliefs, become more informed regarding democracy, and to gain a better understanding of current issues, but it also provides them with a platform to discuss these ideas with other individuals, not only on a more localized scale but also on a global scale. , Greenbelt, Hyattsville, Riverdale Park, and Mount Rainier, all in Prince George's County, Maryland, as well as Somerset and Chevy Chase in Montgomery County, had followed suit.

See also

  • Youth politics
  • Youth suffrage
  • Young Voters for the President
  • Millennial socialism
  • Apathy is Boring, a Canadian non-profit and non-partisan organization that promotes youth involvement in politics

References

Further reading

  • Caplan, Sheri J. Old Enough: How 18-Year-Olds Won the Vote & Why it Matters. Heath Hen, 2020. .
  • John B. Holbein and D. Sunshine Hillygus. 2020. Making Young Voters: Converting Civic Attitudes into Civic Action. Cambridge University Press, .
  • Grinspan, Jon. (2016) The Virgin Vote: How Young Americans Made Democracy Social, Politics Personal, and Voting Popular in the Nineteenth Century. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press).
  • Online registration and ballot request tools for U.S. voters 18–29 living overseas, including students, volunteers and young professionals