Younger voters didn't "feel the Bern" in 2020 primaries

In fact, their turnout was flat, or even below, what it had been in 2016 primaries. This probably explains Sanders's "meh" performance on Super Tuesday.

It's concerning, because if young voters don't turn out well in November, especially in swing states, it's not good for Trump's eventual challenger. Now it's possible they were overconfident and lazy, because of Sanders's early victories. Or maybe a lot of them figured it doesn't really matter who the Democratic nominee is, because they'll vote for anyone who isn't Trump in November, so they didn't bother voting in the primary. Or maybe younger voters are more concerned than older voters about the coronavirus last week (it does not appears to be suppressing early voting across all demographics in other states with upcoming primaries--though overall voter participation on super Tuesday was up, only participation by younger voters was down). I hope it's one of these and not just young people deciding they don't care if Trump gets another term or not. A large turnout from younger voters may not be sufficient for Democrats to win in November, but it will almost certainly be necessary.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...ie-sanders-expected/5e6018d6602ff10d49ac2c83/

I'll confess I never understood the overall low voter turnout among young people. I always voted in both primaries and in fall elections. There were so many issues that were highly relevant to my own life and future, and to the lives and futures of other people as well. I think I missed one "off year" election when I was still registered in my parent's town and it was all local seats, and I forgot to file for an absentee ballot. Other than that I've voted whenever I've had the chance, starting when I turned 18. I remember how "cool" some of my peers thought they were when they said they didn't vote because "both parties were assholes" etc. They'd tend to get angry when I asked them about third party candidates, and what about the propositions that are always on the ballot in CA, some of which affected college funding, people's rights, and other aspects of everyday life so on.

I guess it's the same general laziness that leads some college students to not bother obtaining a textbook, even when it's open source and free. It's disappointing, though.

ap123 said:

I don't know what percentage of young people it would include, but I do know voter suppression tactics often target young people. For college students attending out of state schools, they often can't vote in the state they're physically in at the time of elections. Absentee ballots have been known to mysteriously not arrive, and depending on the state, can't be requested online. I've read about state schools with ridiculously few booths and long, long wait times.

Click to expand...

This can definitely be true, though it's not the case in all states. Some, like CA, have made it easier than ever to do mail-in ballots and allow day-of voter registration.

Young people not in school often have inflexible work schedules and are working long hours, again making it very difficult, sometimes impossible to vote.

Click to expand...

This is also true, and it has always been true, but particularly worrying is the fact that younger people voted in lower numbers than in the 2016 primary.

Totally agree that vote by mail, equal access to polling places, and streamlined voter registration should be required of all states, re the Constitutional right of all citizens to vote. But the Right has been very successful at convincing people in the states they control that voter fraud is common and a pervasive threat to democracy.

Kat M said:

I completely agree all states need to vote by mail. Especially after that fiasco in Texas. And because voting in-person is hard even for us privileged folk who can take a day off to do something like that.

I know when I was in college and starting my career I didn't vote because I didn't feel like I had enough time to adequately research everything on the ballot. (Yes, that's a priority thing, but I also didn't have enough time to make my bed, I was so busy studying and working and juggling my practicum.)

I felt voting was too much responsibility to do well, so I would let more informed people do it for me. I don't know if that's a common thought among my generation though.

Since 2016, I have adjusted my priorities. I've also learned how to manage my time better. Still need to work on the research, though, especially with all the propaganda these days.

Click to expand...

The hardest thing to research on our ballots are the local county seats, school board, and judges and so on. They're not people who are in the news very much, and there are multiple seats to choose from. It's hard to find much about them online as well. I finally tracked down the information about our county supervisor candidates, and it was frustrating, because most of them did not provide any information about their positions, experiences etc. Well, I could vote for up to six out of the field of 12, but in the end I only chose 4--the ones who actually bothered to provide information about their positions, goals and so on.

When I was younger, before the days of the internet, I'll admit I did skip some of the local races when I felt like I knew far too little about the candidates to make an informed choice. I'd leave those blank on my ballot.