Why don't millennials vote in the numbers they represent?

[glennward]

I pray that what happened with Brexit doesn't happen here. And it won't if the millennials GOTV for the Dems up and down ticket.

[tonyt53]

1. Young people just do not take voting seriously - yeah, I was young once.

[NurseJackie]

5. That. And, I think many are impatient and want immediate results, and instant gratification...

... and, if they don't get it, many assume that it's not worthwhile to vote, or assume that everything is "rigged".

(I was young once too.)

[cwydro]

16. I've voted in every election since I came of age to do so.

No excuse not to vote imo.

I know a lot of millennials. Few of them seem to give a crap about voting. A shame.

[akbacchus_BC]

26. I beg to differ! Young people do take voting seriously. Which group voted more

for Senator Obama, the young people! Who are more behind Mr. Sanders, the young people. You folks need to stop thinking that young people are only into posting on social media. They pay attention and they vote!

[HassleCat]

2. As they look up and down the ticket

They might not find as many people as they would like who deserve the title "Democrat."

[LonePirate]

3. Until they show up to vote, their definition of who is and is not a Democrat doesn't matter.

[silvershadow]

11. Until the candidate is there who excites them, it would seem voting doesn't matter?

[LonePirate]

13. Voting seldom offers a buffet of choices where you choose your favorite.

Voters can choose from the limited choices on the menu or they can go without. Many millennials prefer to go without.

[silvershadow]

15. Gerrymandering is just one of many problems that affects the choices on the

non-existent buffet. Many would prefer candidates much further to the left than currently exist. I can't fault them for not voting if they choose not too. What I *can fault them for is not running for office, if they see the void there.

[KittyWampus]

18. Voting for candidates shouldn't be about excitment, IMO. It's not like dating... or American Idol.

It's called "Civic Duty".

It about responsibility and caring about things greater than ones self.

But perhaps those things come with age.

I'm not arguing with you, btw.

I've had jobs that I wasn't excited about but got up every day and did them. But it sure makes it easier when you do like your job.

[SheilaT]

4. Young people are always slow to come to voting.

It's been that way pretty much from the beginning.

One reason given for lowering the voting age to 18 from 21 was that it would get young people to vote in greater numbers. While obviously, there are those who are between 18 and 21 who do vote, it's not in the large numbers originally predicted. But almost anyone who used to be young could have told you that.

It doesn't help that in this country simply getting registered to vote can be a huge hassle, even in states where the Republicans haven't subverted the registration and voting process.

As the Millennials get older, they will be more reliable and frequent voters.

[Sancho]

6. Young people don't vote...

[TheCowsCameHome]

7. It requires work.

[BlueStater]

14. Screw your idiotic stereotypes.

This kind of comment is something I expect to see on Free Republic, not here.

[Scootaloo]

28. No, in fact it doesn't

Which is why so many people want election days to be work holidays. So we can go vote without endangering our jobs.

[Travis_0004]

36. I don't think thats necessary

Plus, a lot of businesses won't close anyway even if it was a holiday.

Where I live, we have early voting, and no excuse absentee voting. If somebody doesn't vote, it probably because they didn't want to.

[beachbum bob]

8. Too hard to pry away from their cell phones

....now if they could vote by phone....people would pay more attention to them as a voting block

[JI7]

10. it was true of younger people before cell phones also

[silvershadow]

12. Actually I wish we could vote by phone...providing we can somehow lock down

the important things that secure the integrity of the vote. Right now, we don't even have that with the electronic machines under corporate control.

[JI7]

9. younger people usually have low turnout. it was true of previous younger generations also

It's not just a millenials thing

[forjusticethunders]

17. It's a combination of things

Less settled, more chaotic work schedules, yes part of it is maturity too.

[name not needed]

19. We're too busy having unprotected sex and listening to that damned rap music.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

40. Ok, you win, these are completely acceptable, laudable excuses.

Except for that damned rap music.

[Xyzse]

20. Better question is...

Why can't politicians energize them to vote.

In regards to the primaries it would have meant pigeon holing themselves to a party and many don't want that.

It also makes them unable to vote then.
During the actual general elections many fail to see the difference between the parties as both tends to ask for votes while breaking promises, where all they expect sometimes is to at least fight for them.

I'm going to vote as I consider it a duty. Not everyone feels that way.

[Exilednight]

21. Very good points. I would also add that they don't see themselves in the candidates. They see

Their parents or grandparents as the people running the country. Very few young people run for office at any level. If more people in their later 20s ran for the House, we might actually see more younger people vote.

[Starry Messenger]

22. My stepson said that once he was settled in life he felt it was time to pay attention to politics.

He just turned 27. Maybe there are other young people who feel that way. I never read political news or did vote much in college. Once you are out in the world and see your place in the system, you connect the dots a little more.

[forjusticethunders]

34. For me I've always been interested in politics

But I just hit 27 too and this is the first time I'm thinking of taking a more boots on the ground activist role.

[Starry Messenger]

37. You're definitely way ahead of where I was. :)

I think looking at things like Brexit, where people were not educated about what their vote meant, shows that active outreach and not just leaving things to the chance people might just have an educated opinion, really matters.

[Nye Bevan]

23. Too busy on Snapchat and Instagram (nt)

[JI7]

24. why didn't the same age group vote before there was snapchat and instagram ?

[Scootaloo]

29. And we're on your lawn, with our jungle music turned up too loud.

My hair is too long and my girlfriend wears short sleeves, too.

[akbacchus_BC]

25. Why are the millennials now responsible for voting? Time and time shows that older

voters do not turn out. I would be angry if am blamed as a millennial for low voter turn out!

Am not a millennial by the way but I dislike the blame game!

[hack89]

38. Older voters historically have the highest voting rates

While younger voters historically have the lowest voting rates.

[Lord Magus]

27. It's not going to happen here.

The UK is considerably less diverse than the US, and xenophobia has broader appeal there.

[Recursion]

30. Boomers and Xers didn't at their age either

Just one of those things.

[Just reading posts]

31. Young people never do. Probably for the largely the same reason many of them don't save for

retirement. They don't give due consideration to the long term.

[Go Vols]

32. Stupid is all I can figure

I voted for Jimmy in '80 @ 18.

[Ash_F]

33. Cynicism

ps - I don't blame them

[CobaltBlue]

35. Well…

When I was following the 2016 Democratic presidential primaries, the two youngest voting-age groups of 17 [18] to 29 and 30 to 44 underperformed in participation. The youngest should have been about 18 to 20 percent the size of the vote. The 30 to 44 should have been about 30 percent. (In some cases, the 30 to 44, more so than the 17 [18] to 29, voters really did not turn out the vote.) Together, they combine for 50 percent normally for general elections … making them even with the two oldest voting-age groups, 45 to 64 and 65+. A key reason why particular states carried for Hillary Clinton, over Bernie Sanders, by +5 or less percentage points was because the 60 percent (in some cases, 61 or 62 percent) size of a state's overall vote, specially by those 45 to 64 and 65+, delivered those eked-out wins to Hillary. So the lesson is: show up.

[zenabby]

39. Something about the age war

is bothering me.. In Brexit as well as here, the younger generation (millennials) seem to think that older people who don't think their way are stupid, are going to die soon and are deciding for younger generation. I am against Brexit, but the younger generation don't realize the older people were younger too, and they have exactly the same right to vote and have their voices heard as much as the millennials. The older votes don't weigh less and it shouldn't. They have earned the right to vote. On Bill Maher yesterday, there was this 16 year old who said everyone was "crushing their voices" or something like that. Hey, you are not special because you are younger. You are not smarter or better. You may be the future, but I am the present. I've lived a bit longer, seen a bit more than you and am using my sane judgement. If you want your voices to be heard, then please go out and vote. Don't disparage the older voters.

And yes, if you lose by 48-52, it's still losing. The biggest success of democracy is the peaceful transfer of power and acceptance of losing. Al Gore peacefully accepted it even though he won the popular vote. That's what makes us great. Obama won 51.1% to Romney's 47.2%. Yes, almost 48% of the voters voted for Romney. But we don't get to have a Romney platform or republican presidency. That's how it works. Sorry.