Voting: Just do it

There is an election on Tuesday. I am looking forward to it. This will be the first election in which I get to vote for Federal and state offices. Most people who will read this column, and college students in general, however, do not. As a group we do not vote. In 1996, only 31 percent of people age 18-20 years voted. With this level of voter turnout, we made up only 3.21% of the total voter turnout in America.

We do not participate in the system. Students would like to claim that candidates do not engage them, but I doubt this is true. The issues we feel most strongly about are topics of debate in election years. Candidates do come by college campuses and interact with students. We cannot just blame our representatives for our lack of political engagement. We must accept responsibility for our poor voting record, and make a concentrated effort to change it.

We cannot claim that politicians do not care about the issues that concern us. This year war with Iraq is the biggest issue in congressional races. Although Congress already voted on a resolution authorizing the use of force, there will be other votes in the future that help determine our nation's foreign policy in this area. College students have demonstrated a great deal of interest in Iraq. There have been rallies on campuses across the nation, and there have been rallies in our Capitol. Other topics of mutual interest between college students and politicians are education and economic concerns like job creation. Politicians are debating the same issues as college students.

As a voter, I care strongly about a variety of issues. The conservation of the environment is one of my focuses. Many college students have similar interests. Politicians do too. Today, environmental policy is one of the most debated issues in elections. In the 2000 election, Former Vice President Al Gore and then-Candidate George W. Bush outlined their environmental policies and debated their stances. The candidates did not ignore the environment.

Technology has made it easier to be an informed voter. In the past, gathering information on candidates was difficult. Determining a politician's political stances required voters to find campaign handouts, or write to or call the candidate. This required effort was a legitimate cause of voter apathy. College students lead busy lives. We do not have time to find campaign literature, or contact our representatives. Today, the Internet has changed politics. Information from the media and candidates themselves is readily available online. The easy access to the Internet provided by most colleges and universities allows students to gather information on candidates in no more than ten minutes, often from the comfort of their own dormitory rooms.

Despite all these advances in information, college student turnout has dropped as access to information has risen. The creation of tools like the Internet and the ease of email occurred as the voter turnout of young people dropped another seven percentage points. We cannot continue to cite the difficulty of gathering information on candidates as a valid reason to not vote.

Campaign negativity cannot be a cause of the decline in college voter turnout. Campaigns have always been negative. Candidates must contrast themselves with their opponents. Candidates are not about to contrast their virtues with the virtues of their opposition. Most voters cite negative campaigns as a cause of their apathy. College students are the same way. As a group we do not like campaign negativity either. Voters would prefer that candidates talk about their own records, instead of attacking their opponents. When candidates want to discuss the differences between them, they will always focus on their virtues and their opponents' flaws. Campaigns have always involved negativity, so negativity cannot explain why college students are voting less and less.

We as a group must reverse this trend in voter decline. We cannot claim that elected officials ignore the issues we care about. Some people would say that young people today just do not care about anything. I look at our rising rates of community activism and volunteer service as proof that they are wrong. Whether or not we vote is up to us alone. We must accept responsibility for our lack of engagement and make an effort to change.

Tips for future voters:

-You can find information on your elected officials with the help of The New York Times, at:http://capwiz.com/nyt/dbq/officials/.

-You can learn how to get an absentee ballot by going to you county's web site or calling your city hall. Absentee ballots are mailed directly to you and include a postage-paid return envelope.

-Even if you attend college in your own county, you can still receive an absentee ballot to make voting easier.



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