Why don’t more young people vote?

[davids]

Davidses, that attachment won't load for me, but is what you're saying in direct contradiction to my post above?

Because this shows that the "youth" vote followed the overall vote trend which steadily increased from 1996 to 2000, again in 2004, to a high in 2008 (thanks, Obama). Dropped off a little in 2012 and 2016, but the youthiest vote looks stronger in 2016 than 2012. Too many gray lines on this chart, but I didn't make it.

https://miro.medium.com/max/1400/1*g...Ilt9Wel6Kw.png

The graphic from this page: Youth vote in the United States - Wikipedia

Youth voting percentages have been lower than for overall voters for decades. And they track overall voter turnout.

[thollandpe]

The graphic from this page: Youth vote in the United States - Wikipedia

Youth voting percentages have been lower than for overall voters for decades. And they track overall voter turnout.

That Wikipedia page references Congressional elections, the data I linked to above references Presidential elections. The trends are different.

[j44ke]

I think your points are not necessarily cancelling out each other. I believe Davids is saying that young people vote in lower percentages than voters as a whole. And Todd is saying the numbers of young people voting is increasing. Both could be occurring.

Everyone is a winner.

[deano]

I posted this in another politics thread on here, but now that I think about, quite relevant for this question! From the Harper's weekly update newsletter (ignore the Sanders delegate count bit, but that was the sitch at the time, and maybe makes it all the more damning how things have gone with Biden's rise). Anyway the comedy that unfolds below is our democratic party, perhaps one reason I have in the past few months quit identifying myself at cocktail parties as "a man of the left." There is no serious left anymore. I mean, Fonzie right over that shark! Look at him go.

"The Democratic Party held caucuses in Nevada and a primary election in South Carolina, leaving Vermont senator Bernie Sanders with the most pledged delegates, followed by Joe Biden, who won his first-ever state in his third presidential run. The former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, who spent an undisclosed, seven-figure sum on television ads in 12 of the 14 Super Tuesday states, dropped out of the race, as did Amy Klobuchar, whose campaign spent $4.2 million on ads in Super Tuesday states; both endorsed the former vice president, who mistakenly said at a campaign rally that he was running for a seat in the U.S. Senate and who then told the same crowd that if voters don’t like him they should “vote for the other Biden.” Michael Bloomberg—a former mayor of New York City worth $65 billion who has referred to Mexican clients as “jumping beans,” called women “horse-faced lesbians,” said an employee was “a real Jap,” and bragged that his daughter was “tall and busty”—vowed to continue his campaign to “unite America,” and then told an audience in Texas that if he did not win the nomination he might not support Sanders. Tom Steyer, a former fossil-fuel investor worth $1.6 billion who pledged to use his fortune to “stop climate change” and “realize full equality for women,” ended his campaign; the day before, Steyer had stiffly moved his arms as Juvenile performed “Back That Azz Up” at a campaign rally. At a press conference, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who was encouraged by the Democratic megadonor Bernard Schwartz to stop Sanders by announcing support for another candidate, acknowledged that, between 2009 and 2016, his PAC had spent $8,638.85 on Junior’s cheesecakes for donors."