July 28, 2008

Protecting the Youth Vote

Posted by Sarah Burris at 2:18PM

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At a time when organizations across the country are focused on increasing voter registration, the lobbying and advocacy organization Student Association for Voter Empowerment (SAVE) has worked to make sure that when those newly registered voters go to the polls, their votes will count.

On July 25, SAVE held a jam-packed forum to discuss the representation of young people in the media. The forum, called Asserting the Youth Voice, had a panel that included Thomas Friedman, author of the best selling book The World Is Flat; Judy Woodruff, senior correspondent for The News Hour With Jim Lehrer; U.S. Congressman Joe Scarborough; Newsweek editor Eleanor Clift, and former white house press secretary Mike McCurry. According to a press release for the event:

Conventional wisdom states that "young people don't vote," citing both turnout percentages that are well behind older demographics and political pundits who brand us disinterested, disengaged"

But the truth is that young voters face some of the most difficult obstacles when it comes to going to the polls than many other voting blocs.

In the 2004 and 2006 elections, young people came out in record numbers.

Last year 18-29 year olds - often called the 'Millennial Generation' --made up 20% of the eligible voters in the US. The press release also mentioned:

With such a large representation in the electorate it would seem remiss for any politician not to court us and anomalous for any reporter not to mention us. And yet, studies show that less than two percent of political news coverage mentions young people, providing glaring evidence that many journalists and media outlets still assume the accepted opinion, portraying young voters as non-voters if not ignoring the youth demographic entirely."

Why are the interests, accomplishments and voices of young people left out of the national discussion? The panelists' answers weren't surprising, and mainly boiled down to the fact that young people aren't the target demographic for most national mainstream news outlets.

How many young people watch the News Hour with Jim Lehrer? How about the McLaughlin Group? Yet, we are above and beyond one of the most well informed generations when it comes to news and information this election. But apparently no one else knows about us!

SAVE asked the panelists: What can we as young voters do to make our voices heard, affirmed and recognized by mainstream journalists?

Not surprisingly Thomas Friendman, author of the piece Generation Q, said that we need to get off Facebook. His point is well taken. While we've done amazing organizing on and offline for causes ranging from divesting assets from Sudan to combating global warming, Friedman said that we should take to the streets. That was his central theme in the book Generation Q. But this time he qualified it by saying that his generation has "maxed out our credit cards." Our generation will be forced to pay off the reckless spending done by our parents -- something Jim Slattery, a candidate for the US Senate, calls "generational robbery."

At a time when organizations spend so much money and focus on famous people plugging voting and young voters, SAVE instead encourages us to continue on the same path we've made for ourselves and begin a better dialogue with the older crowd who doesn't understand the plight we face. Friedman said that our generation should be holding elected officials more accountable for the reckless policies they pass.

SAVE is working on posting the video soon, I'm excited to bring it to you when it becomes available!