Megan Reed, Campus Carrier Editor-in-Chief
With the Georgia presidential primaries approaching on March 1, the College Republicans and the Young Democrats are reaching across the aisle to get students ready to vote.
The two student groups worked with director of student activities Cecily Crow and held a voter registration drive in Krannert on Jan. 27 and 28. College Republicans chair junior Alaina Spencer said the effort focused on getting students to the polls, not convincing them to vote for a particular party.
“There are too many millennials today saying that their vote doesn’t matter, and it really does matter,” Spencer said. “We want people to care about politics, Republicans and Democrats alike.”
Voter turnout in 2012 for 18-to-24-year olds was slightly over 41 percent, according to a 2013 report from the U.S. Census Bureau. Younger voters are also less likely to follow political issues.
According to a December 2015 study by the Harvard University Institute of Politics, only 12 percent of 18-to-29 year olds are following the 2016 election “very” closely, and 20 percent are not following the race at all.
Senior Lainey Battles, president of Young Democrats, said some students may not realize how important voting is until it’s too late.
“It’s one of the many methods of political engagement, which I feel most college kids are really concerned about and they don’t realize how important that is at the time,” Battles said. “Obviously, politics and government affect us.”
Michael Bailey, associate professor of government, said college students are often less politically involved than people in other age groups and are less engaged than previous generations of young voters.
“The very technologies that people thought would open up political involvement actually make it easier to access the kinds of things like entertainment and social networking that young people are more interested in,” he said. “It’s easier than ever to follow what your favorite music act is doing or what next big event is coming to Atlanta … in some areas of knowledge they actually do know more than older generations, but it tends to be more about entertainment and about technology.”
Younger voters, Bailey said, may also feel that their vote would do little to change a flawed political system.
“I think a lot of people feel that politics is something older people do, that any sort of real energy put into it would be wasted. The system’s not going to change and it has its own momentum, so why get all that involved in it,” he said.
However, there are several current political discussions that concern students, Battles said.
“There’s always the topic of college tuition, who should pay for it, the amount of financial aid, scholarships and grants that should be given,” she said.
Spencer said many young Republicans are also concerned about the cost of college.
“The big thing that Republicans, at least that I know of, want to hear from the candidates is talking about their debts and talking about how the candidates can relate to us in that way,” she said. “We’re hearing a little bit about it, especially from Marco Rubio because he’s younger and he’s experienced those debts.”
Bailey said that young educated conservatives value Rubio’s efforts to relate to them.
“That’s how he’s pitching himself, as someone who is a new voice, a new face, has broader appeal and is not simply another suit,” he said.
On the liberal side of the spectrum, Bailey said he sees many young voters excited about Bernie Sanders.
“[Sanders] represents someone who can speak very openly and is not simply business as usual,” Bailey said. “I think there’s a lot of sentiment among young people at a deep level that the system is fraudulent, that the system is fixed, that it really is difficult to break in and make a change.”
This negative view of politics, Bailey said, may stem from recent partisanship in Congress.
“In 2008, Obama campaigned on this idea of hope and change, and we’ve seen a lot of cynicism since then and the same partisan divisions as ever,” he said. “I think there’s very little hope that young people have that the system is thinking about them or for their own good.”
Spencer, however, is hopeful. She said she has seen the receptiveness of local government officials to their constituents’ concerns. The psychology major said that students don’t have to be pursuing a career in law or politics to take an interest in the issues.
“You don’t have to be a political science major to care,” she said.
Battles said Young Democrats plans to further inform students about political issues later this semester. The group was revived in December after several years of being inactive at Berry. They now have 10 to 15 active members and are planning to hold a debate party on Feb. 11 and are considering hosting a panel later in the semester.
Spencer said College Republicans, which also has 10 to 15 members, will likely host a local politician as a speaker and will continue to work with the Floyd County Republican Party. Their meetings, she said, are discussion-based so students can become informed and decide where they stand.
“Right now, politicians are planning out our future. The next president that we elect will probably be in office for eight years,” Spencer said. “We’ll all be almost 30, and that’s a lot of our lifetime.”