Mike Barnicle on 'Morning Joe' brought up an interesting point regarding voter turnout

[PearliePoo2]

He said he's been looking at video footage he's seeing of the people that are in line for early voting.

He said, while shaking his head, "You know who's missing from these lines? Young people."

He said he's been watching the hard work and the touring the Parkland School kids are doing.

He said they are getting good crowds, but then he said, "Almost all the people I see at their events, LOOK LIKE ME!"

Now I'm going to be paying attention to the videos showing people in line for early voting and look for young voters.

PLEASE...any DUers here, if you have already voted early or you are about to, would you please share what you observe?

The average turnout for the 18 to 33 age group is 25%. That means 3 out of 4 don't even bother.
The age group that can reliably counted on to vote is 65 and over. Will this year be any different for the 18 to 33 group ? I sure as hell hope so.

Maybe a secure ballot app should be developed so this young age group can vote on their FUCKING cell phones.

The largest voting demographic with the most to gain and who can determine their future, routinely sits it out.

God, this is depressing. I really hope things change from this year on.

[Pachamama]

1. I'm not worried - my 18 yr old is at college and she and her friends

... all have gotten their early voting ballots from their respective homes and are voting or are already have and they are committed to voting. They aren’t in lines because they are at school or work, but they are voting.

[smooth64]

3. If I'm not mistaken can't

some collages have voting stations and voting booths for them to vote on election day?

[elmac]

21. some red states have passed laws that require students return home on Election Day

to vote, I know putin's Michigan has such a law. They must vote at the poll they registered for, address their DR shows. They can register with their college address but must have their DR address changed also which is a pain and why the fascists pass such laws.

[PearliePoo2]

25. Are you kidding me? This is criminal!

If that isn't blatant voter suppression, I don't know what is!

What bullshit.

Yeah, like a student has tons of time and money to drive or fly home on a Tuesday in November.

Republicans...I HATE THEM.

[elmac]

37. yes, it is criminal but when they have control of state government they can make the laws

and that is what fascism looks like, not Democracy.

[elmac]

39. here is a good place to go to find where all the voter suppression is happening

https://www.gregpalast.com/

[Hermit-The-Prog]

59. thanks for the link!

[Rhiannon12866]

62. When I was in school, I voted absentee

My mother made sure I got my ballot. And when I worked on my congressman's campaigns, we got calls from parents and instructed them on how to get absentee ballots for their college age kids.

[onetexan]

29. UT Austin does, smack inside the campus

and my kiddo & her roommate are both voting

[PearliePoo2]

5. That's encouraging and hopeful to hear!

Thanks for the personal example!

[Garrett78]

2. I imagine young people are more likely to wait until the last minute.

And, let's face it, 30% turnout among those under 30 would be considered huge. That's just a sad fact.

[Baclava]

6. "16 percent of eligible voters ages 18 to 29 turned out to vote in the 2014 midterms"

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2018/08/01/are-young-voters-going-to-sway-the-midterms-new-data-show-thats-not-very-likely/?utm_term=.d28fba8b645b


Those with the most future to lose just don't seem to get out to vote...

[PearliePoo2]

13. "1 out of 6 under 30 in 2014"

Pathetic.

[a kennedy]

4. and in my experience, they don't have a ton of patience to stand in a line

you know unless some rock star. So as said previously hope they wait till the last minute. *keeping fingers crossed*

[PearliePoo2]

11. We need VOTE BY MAIL in every freakin' state! We need it NOW!

Presently, as far as I know, only 3 states have mail-in ballots: Oregon, Washington State and Colorado.

California will be next!

[TwistOneUp]

28. CA already has it. nt

[PearliePoo2]

30. Alright!!

Rock on California!

[TwistOneUp]

32. I'm signing up today.

In the past I have messed up election forms and slowed down other people's voting experience. I prefer to take my time and voting by mail is perfect for me.

[PearliePoo2]

34. Right on! That's exciting!

Will you mail your ballot in or take it to a drop box?

[TwistOneUp]

45. Neither

I downloaded a .pdf, filled it out, scanned it, and attached it as a .pdf to an email sent to the Department of Elections.

So I'm done in 5min.

Hth!

[PearliePoo2]

47. WHAT?? That's amazing! Congratulations!

So was there a way to electronically sign it like you do your Turbo Tax Income tax return?

Did you have to use a pencil or printer at all?

PLEASE...PLEASE... we need something similar to this method for cell phones too!

[TwistOneUp]

48. Sorry...

But in CA a form is required.

It would be interesting to see other states' implementations.

[LisaM]

52. It hasn't really increased turnout in Washington, though the last primary was slightly higher.

They finally included paid postage, which is huge. Although I took it with a grain of salt, I read an article that said millennials didn't know where to buy stamps! If so, they also wouldn't know where to stick something in the mail so that it gets postmarked in time, which is a concern.

I don't see how, without super advanced technology, we are anywhere near people being able to vote on their phones. Either you don't know who's doing the actual voting, it's not necessarily secret because you're not in a private polling place (what if you are in an abusive relationship and someone stands over you to watch you vote, though frankly, I have that concern with mail-in voting too), or, if they go to a fingerprint type technology, how do they guarantee it's secret? Someone is matching up the print and the vote.

[samnsara]

53. yep here in wash state.. im staring at my ballot now. hubby out of town til tonight and then we are

...going over initiatives together. We already know who we are voting for otherwise. straight D baby! Ours is even pre stamped!

[treestar]

27. We should play rock music

and bring pizza to lines where there are a lot of college students!

They can be more patient than we were at that age because they have phones - K know I wait in line a lot easier when I can look at DU or something while waiting.

[Bucky]

51. If blaring rock music drove out Noriega, why wouldn't it work on the old fogeys in Congress?

[treestar]

55. Maybe Michael Moore can do it

Remember in Farenheit 911 when he played a reading of the Patriot Act from a driving vehicle with a bullhorn!

[beachbum bob]

7. I don't mind hearing from any one in the media about the young people voting becasue when they

do its going to almost all democratic votes. I know in illinois, lots on the ground effort for college age voters to vote early and by mail-in ballots. In illionis we actually have plenty of places to walk in and vote early without a line. Our county has already broken all early voting records with 2 week left to early vote

[PearliePoo2]

9. "Our county has already broken all early voting records with 2 week left to early vote"

Oh man, that's good to hear!

Thanks for this information and sharing a local perspective!

[mcar]

8. My 21 YO filled out his vote by mail ballot this weekend

I'll be dropping off all our ballots at the elections office this week.

[treestar]

10. has he looked at all of the footage from all over the country?

and he's just making an eyeball guess.

[PearliePoo2]

12. I don't know, he didn't say how much footage he's looked at but...

he said he's made it a point to pay attention and this is what he's observing.

I imagine, as a journalist, his nature and training would be to pay attention to things like this.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

14. The whole Morning Joe crew is twisting themselves into pretzels creating a horse race.

I caught the end of the show as well as the beginning of Ruhle's show (with a guest host) and they're seizing on every factoid available to offset the blue wave.

[PearliePoo2]

19. "twisting themselves into pretzels creating a horse race."

Yes, it seemed that way to me too.

BUT...I do remember Mika warning people (and she knew she would get shit about it) before the 2016 election, that it was possible trump could win.
She was also sick and terrified about that thought. After he did win, she said her phone was ringing all day with people she knew who were calling her and crying.

Could it be they are warning people not to be over confident and GET OUT THE VOTE!

Yesterday, Joe's advice to Democrats was, "Ring doorbells!! Talk to people and ASK FOR THEIR VOTE!"

[Cousin Dupree]

15. 18 year old granddaughter will be voting on Election Day for the first time.Dem, of course.

[NewJeffCT]

16. if 18-29 turnout was 16% in 2014

and it increases to 25%, it would be a huge gain, and most of it would be for Democrats. 30% or higher would be gigantic.

My daughter is not old enough to vote, but right now, a lot of kids in her high school that are voting age are more focused on their college applications (Early Decision/Early Admission deadline is 11/1 for many colleges) - I think once 11/1 passes, the 18 year olds should have a brief respite before they get to work on Regular Decision deadlines that are 12/31 or 1/1.

[nycbos]

35. 25% is still extremely pathetic

[Bettie]

46. Look for improvement

not perfection.

Frankly, 50% overall is pretty pathetic.

[nycbos]

49. No doubt

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

17. From the chart in reply 6, the only age group

that didn't see a decline in voters from 1986 to 2014 was the 60+ group. And the age groups 30-44 and 45-59 had far bigger drops than the youngest age group, so I don't think it's the young ones we have so much to worry about.

Plus, why isn't the turnout in 2016 on that chart?

[Yonnie3]

57. "why isn't the turnout in 2016 on that chart?"

Because it is a chart of turnout for non-presidential elections.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

63. I obviously failed the reading comprehension part.

[Yonnie3]

64. Whereas I am the king of leaping to conclusions.

Non-presidential election is actually a good description of 2016.

[Me.]

18. He Also Said All The Dems Talk About Is Impeachment

I discount whatever that plagiarist has to say. has to say.

[PearliePoo2]

20. I caught that too, but I wasn't sure who said it.

That's bullshit.

To the contrary, I think the Democrats are being VERY careful to NOT talk about impeachment.

HEALTH CARE...HEALTH CARE...HEALTH CARE!

[Me.]

54. You Are Quite Right

and his repeating an untrue meme did him no credit. The Dems are being very careful about all that.

[Dem_4_Life]

22. It also depends on what time of day.

It is hard to guess a snap shot of lines if they are taken early in the morning for instance. I would guess that young people would probably vote after 5PM. They probably have school and jobs and won't take time off to vote during the day. They also more than likely they will wait until last min or the last week and not be the first in line.

[PearliePoo2]

23. Good points you make! I know that when I was younger, the last thing I wanted to do...

was get up early for ANYTHING!

As I got older, it was just the opposite on election day. Get sorta dressed up, rush to the school gym early to see if we could be first in line, VOTE! and then go have a leisurely breakfast of Eggs Benedict!

Yes, it makes sense that more young people would vote after school or when they get off work. I sure hope they do it!

[FM123]

26. Yes, most college students are in class during the day

so we might see them in line voting in the evening OR when my kids were going to college out of state, they did the mail in ballots...

[DFW]

24. I know of at least 4 young reliable Democratic voters.

Ages 33 and 35 (my daughters), 28 and 35 (my nephews).

[Hoyt]

31. Where I went, lots of older voters, many married. It was on a Wednesday, so you'd expect

retired folks during day.

Maybe Saturdays will have more young folks. I live in a red area, but I see hope as diversity is really increasing rapidly. I suspect a lot of the younger folks are as red, and stupid, as their ignorant white wing parents.

[PearliePoo2]

40. "expect retired folks during the day"

Yes, true!

Saturdays would make sense! Go vote and then go out for their Saturday night!

[nycbos]

33. Young people suck.

I say this as a young person. For the elders who have hope for the people of my generation it best to give up on us.

[RandySF]

36. Turn off the cable news for the next two weeks

[JCMach1]

38. Block Chain Voting with a paper trail would literally mean we could vote via an app

in the future...

We have the tech, time to re-think voting.

[redstateblues]

41. After last Friday's tirade by Joe and Mika directed at Democrats for not having a overarching

theme (which they actually do) I'm not watching til after the election-and maybe never. They have become annoying. I'm sure Barnicle, Willie et al get their instructions from the producers anyway.

[obamanut2012]

42. Everyone I know beteen 20-27 (and I know a lot)

Are all voting -- quite a few did today. SOFL.

[PearliePoo2]

43. That's great to hear!

"Fired up...ready to GO!"

It will be really interesting after this election to see the turnout numbers of the 18 to 30 age group. I hope they're up!

[Azathoth]

44. Young people don't vote in midterms. Full stop.

This is like turning Georgia or Texas blue -- a tantalizing fantasy that is theoretically possible yet totally impractical. For all their insanity, Republicans are more practical. They know young people aren't going to turn out reliably, and so they ignore them. And it works. Every time.

Obama was the closest thing we've had in over a generation to a young voter-mobilizer. And even he couldn't get them to come out during the midterms.

[LBM20]

61. Gotta try. Get as many as possible.

[Bucky]

50. Young people never vote in big numbers. It's saddening.

I'm lockstep with younger voters in political preferences. But they're not a reliable base. I think it's time we started putting our efforts in turning out more dependably growable demographics. If we want the 20somethings to turn up, it'll take having a young sexy candidate (a vintage '92 Bubba or an Obama) to rally them. And that rarely happens in midterms.

[SWBTATTReg]

56. Maybe w/ Taylor Swift encouraging young voters to vote, this might help...every little bit helps! nt

[TomSlick]

58. I hadn't thought about it until I read this post, but

of the two dozen of folks I saw voting today, I'd guess the median age at 50. I saw no one that looked less than 30.

[Pacifist Patriot]

60. Two observations...

My 21 year old texted me a photo today of him and his buddies filling out their mail away ballots. A decent number of youth voters are away at school and have to vote this way.

My 18 year old, his girlfriend, and his best friend turned down my offer this evening to go to the early voting site near us on Saturday together. They really want their first voting experience to be on election day in their precinct. No clue why that matters to them, but they say it's a common sentiment.

I sure hope so!

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

65. My younger son likewise turned down early voting

in his home state to vote on Election Day where he was attending college for his first time voting.