Super Tuesday: Why didn't more young people vote?

Young people are the future of politics - or at least, they must be.

In the US, people aged 39 and younger - millennials and Generation Z - now make up quite a third of eligible voters. They're considered more ethnically diverse, and liberal, than older generations, and experts say they might make a big impact on this year's elections.

Except for younger voters, as a cohort, consistently turn out in lower numbers than older generations.

The democratic party is currently electing its nominee to take on President Donald Trump in November's election, and one candidate, Senator Bernie Sanders, has argued he alone can mobilize young and new voters.

The 78-year-old is uniquely fashionable the young - consistent with some polls, he's the first choice of about 50% of Democratic primary voters aged 18-38.

On Super Tuesday, surveys suggest Mr. Sanders won the youth choose every single state - yet there wasn't a spike in overall youth turnout, and Mr. Sanders still lost dead set former Vice-President Joe Biden, 77, who won 10 out of 14 states.

Mr. Sanders has admitted that it absolutely was "not easy" mobilizing the youth vote. "Have we been as successful as i might hope in bringing children in? the solution is not any ."

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John Della Volpe, the director of polling at Harvard Kennedy School, has led surveys on American youth voters since 2000. He says that supported exit polling data, "there is credible evidence to suggest that the youth vote is flat to down in most states... teenagers are just not as enthusiastic as many people expected them to be".

So why aren't more children voting within the Democratic primaries - and what style of a bearing would this have on November's presidential elections?

The honest answer is - it's complicated, and there are several different factors involved.

1. it is not always easy to vote - even once you want to

Surveys suggest youth have an interest in politics - one Harvard poll last year found that 43% of 18-29-year-olds said they were likely to choose their party's primary.

But actual turnout appears to possess been far lower than that - analysis of exit polls from Tufts University suggests youth turnout within the Super Tuesday states ranged from 5% to 19%.

And even in the states where the general number of young voters increased, they were dwarfed by a larger increase from older voters.

One reason? the method of casting your ballot will be complicated - especially for first-time voters.

"There's no candidate that magically makes voters show up at the polls," says Abby Kiesa, director of impact at CIRCLE, an enquiry organization at Tufts University focused on youth engagement.

"A youth doesn't turn 18 and realize 'oh, my voting location is here'... too many people assume that just because we've the net, everything is clear , and it is not."

Many children have complained about accidentally missing the registration deadline - and for students living out of their home states, getting an ballot will be even more complicated.

Benjamin Clardy, 21, is currently studying in Italy - and located that postal ballot requirements meant he had to "print out a awfully specific quite envelope". The problem? He did not have the proper printer and had to track down a specialist printer in Venice.

Small barriers can add up, says Grace Wells, 22, a Texan currently studying in Chicago.

"Most folks do not have printers reception anymore," she says. "When you're living a busy life, figuring out whom to vote for, and trying to recollect and navigate different voting processes for a county you do not sleep in , it will be tough."

And the system will be unreliable. Lina Tate, 20, registered for an ballot in mid-February - but didn't receive her ballot until 6 March - three days after Super Tuesday.

She has since sent off her ballot but felt "very annoyed" at the process. "As a younger voter, i know that older generations already think we do not end up to vote... [but] this is often an important process on behalf of me ."

The three all managed to cast their votes eventually - but the system makes it harder for young voters who aren't extremely well-organized or motivated.

Meanwhile, many voters in Texas and California faced a physical challenge - as long lines meant that they had to wait several hours to vote.

Rights groups in Texas said wait times were particularly long in student neighborhoods - and one 19-year-old told the Guardian he queued for an hour and a half, but had to depart to go to class. He returned shortly after 19:00, when polls closed, and waited for 2 hours, but was then told he was now not allowed to vote.

2. quite lot of teens feel disillusioned

Mr. Della Volpe says while there are very real barriers that make it hard for children to vote, there also are "attitudinal barriers that need to be addressed".

"Young Americans vote once they can see a tangible difference that their participation can make," he says, arguing that this motivated record turnout levels within the 2018 mid-term elections.

In general, however, many children can feel disengaged from politics. A Harvard survey found that only 16% of these aged 18 to 29 agreed with the statement that "elected officials who are part of the baby boomer generation care about people like me."

Within the Democratic Party , many young voters feel that the party's establishment has not been taking note of them.

Mitchell Allen, 18, voted for Bernie Sanders, but says: "A lot of youngsters my age feel the system works against them - there is no point voting because the establishment will win."

Ms. Wells, who also voted for Mr. Sanders, argues "it's difficult to mobilize people during a system that's continuously telling them their political goals, and movements they need to ascertain happening, aren't viable."

Meanwhile, Mr. Clardy supported Pete Buttigieg - but also found the last-minute rallying behind Joe Biden "sad... it appeared like the Democratic Party wasn't acknowledging that there are problems."

3. tons of highschool students get less information about politics

Several young voters say they found it easier to interact in politics once they visited university.

Michaela Pernetti, 22, remembers people "didn't want to speak about" politics at her highschool in Sacramento, California.

"Families don't mention it so kids don't, and you don't want to bring it up and obtain during a fight together with your friends." She found far more of a "political atmosphere" once she visited university.

Ethan Somers, 20, tried to encourage his friends to register to vote when he was in high school in Lakewood, Colorado, but said many were likely to respond: "Do i really need to?"

"A lot of people at my community college came from low socio-economic backgrounds, and faced real hardship," Mr. Somers says.

"In this village we were in, they saw politics as a thing that happened in Washington, and it didn't desire the items they might vote on would make a difference to their lives. They felt politics had failed them during a way that made it too frustrating to affect ."

A lot of the divide comes right down to the actual fact that political campaigns believe visiting college campuses - which means "young people that don't have college experience are much less likely to be contacted", says Ms Kiesa from CIRCLE.

‘We work full time but still can’t afford food’

It is problematic "when systemic inequity in [political] access starts so early", she adds.

4. it is also right down to the politicians within the race

A lot of people have blamed children for not voting - or say Bernie Sanders did not mobilize them - but experts say the opposite political campaigns played a neighborhood too.

"Mr. Sanders isn't liable for arising all children ," says Mr. Della Volpe. "The other reason that youth turnout was low is that other candidates didn't make them a strategic focus of their campaigns."

What the other candidates forgot, he argues, is that 50 of young Democratic voters didn't say they supported Mr. Sanders - so he believes they lost a "huge opportunity" to draw in younger voters.

And the fact there have been numerous candidates competing for much of the race could have postpone some younger voters.

"The field was so convoluted, i feel some children stopped trying to figure out who would be the simplest candidate and decided 'I'll just take the overall election'" says Mr. Somers.

5. Finally - things could still be very different in November

Primary elections are complicated - and experts disagree on the most effective way to compare youth turnout.

Harvard pollsters compared 2020 turnout with the foremost recent Democratic primaries in 2016, where Bernie Sanders also-ran. Meanwhile, experts at CIRCLE say youth turnout in 2020 actually increased compared to 2012 - which is that the last time just one party (the Republicans) had a competitive primary.

What they are doing agree on is that children have already made a big impact on politics - which things are often very different normally elections.

The 2018 mid-term elections saw youth turnout increase to 36% - compared to twenty in 2014 - and led to many records being broken.

In part, this was because "in some ways, the 2018 vote was a referendum on Trump's policies," says Mr. Della Volpe, whereas "Trump has not been a serious think about the 2020 primary - it's essentially a referendum on Bernie Sanders."

Meanwhile, Ms. Kiesa says that several events in 2018, including the Parkland shooting, mobilized children to campaign on issues including gun safety and voter registration.

Young people "really do have the ability to make change", she adds. "We should be very careful to not draw any conclusions on youth turnout within the election supported the primary."