Reply #8: Yes, I have, but it takes finding issues that affect them to get there.

[KatyaR]

At my last job, I worked with a lovely young woman in another department who had just had her first child. She is bright and smart and has a great deal of interesting in many things, even though she has never gone to college. As my department dealt with a lot of political issues, it opened my eyes up to a lot of things. This was passed down to her, and she finally got it--that inaction would allow the very things she didn't agree with to happen, and that her life and her children's lives would be affected. She's been voting, and voting Democratic, ever since. I'm very proud of that.

I think you have to find a way to show how voting and elections affect them. Speaking as someone who was headed down the road to be a professional musician until life intervened, it's hard for people who work hard and don't see a lot of benefits from that (pay, insurance, ease of life, general well-being, etc.) to understand that elections could possibly make their lives better and easier. It's much like the working poor and the unemployed; that and the fact that those people usually have to work twice as hard to even stay afloat.

Keep plugging away--it's worth it. You and I both know it. If only one of your friends gets out to vote, that's a huge victory for you and for them.

Good luck!