Turnout of youth voters consistently low
By Daily Bruin Staff
March 4, 2002 9:00 p.m.
 Daily Bruin File Photo Students visit Covel polling
booths during 2000 presidential elections.
By Crystal Betz and Kelly Rayburn
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
With midterms barely over and finals fast-approaching, many UCLA
students will not find the time to vote in today’s California
primary election.
UCLA is not alone. The expected increase in youth votes because
of the 26th amendment ““ which lowered the legal voting age
from 21 to 18 ““ has yet to be realized. Youth voting has
declined ever since the amendment went into effect in 1971.
The number of voters aged 18-24 is particularly low in
non-presidential election years such as 2002. In 1998, the last
such election year, only 16.6 percent of people ages 18-24 voted,
according to U.S. Census Bureau.
Today ““ while many UCLA students will in fact make it to a
polling location or send off their absentee ballot in the mail
““ 96 out of 144 students polled by the Daily Bruin said they
are not voting.
Students were polled at various locations on campus, including
the Bombshelter, Royce Quad, LuValle Commons, the Law School, the
Anderson School and the on-campus resident halls.
Many who are not voting are not registered to vote because they
are non-U.S. or non-California citizens. Others cited reasons such
as lack of knowledge about the candidates, being too busy with work
and school and being too lazy to vote.
Twenty-three students did not even know about the election.
“I’m not voting. I was unaware of the primary
elections date and I forgot to register,” said Lauren
Schrirmacher, a third-year communication studies student.
Ronen Krausz, a fourth-year psychology student, said he likes
Richard Riordan as a gubernatorial candidate, but when asked why he
wasn’t voting for him he said, “I don’t like him
that much.”
“You’re talking to the two most apathetic
guys,” said Kaveh Faturechi, a fourth-year economics student
who was standing with Krausz outside the College Library. “We
don’t give a shit.”
Others, though, say students should not miss the opportunity to
participate in the election.
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“It is important to engage youths in voting to ensure
democracy for the future,” said Merriah Fairchild, Campaign
Director for the California Youth Vote Coalition.
Those who said they will take to the polls appeared to favor
incumbent Democratic Gov. Gray Davis ““ 19 people said they
would vote for him today.
As for the Republican candidates, nine students said they would
vote for former L.A. mayor Richard Riordan, three said they would
vote for L.A. businessman Bill Simon, and two said they would
choose current Secretary of State and political veteran Bill
Jones.
Thirteen are undecided on who they will vote for in the
governor’s race.
Currently in statewide polls, Simon holds a slight lead over
Riordan, who lost a double-digit lead to fall into second place in
the GOP primary. Jones trails behind in third place.
Among students who are voting, the overwhelming majority said
they did not know who they would vote for in the race for the
offices of lieutenant governor and superintendent of public
instruction. The winners of both races will become ex-oficio
members on the UC board of Regents.
Efforts such as The Youth Vote voting drive on campus last week
can’t seem to reverse a 30 year trend.
Youth voting rates soared to an all-time high of nearly 50
percent in the 1972 presidential election just after the 26th
amendment’s passage, according to the U.S. Census, a point it
has not reached since. By 1996, when Bill Clinton was re-elected,
that number was down to 32.4 percent.
Numbers for the 2000 election have not yet been tabulated.
While going to the polls is progressively less popular today, in
the late 1960s and ’70s, young people across the country
fought for the right to vote.
The fact that the U.S. government forced the country’s
young men to fight and possibly die for their country, while
denying them the right to vote on war-related issues was a
difficult position for the U.S. Government to defend, historians
point out. That put pressure on them to lower the voting age.
Following the 1968 general election campaign, Congress argued in
favor of lowering the voting age. One of the reasons members of
Congress gave for supporting the lowering of the voting age was to
help decrease student alienation.
Total ratification of the amendment swept though Congress and
the states in 92 days, twice as fast as any previous amendment,
according to Close Up, a non-profit civic education
organization.
Both the Democratic and Republican party supported the lowering
of voting rights to 18 year olds during the 1968 general election
campaign, as did 64 percent of the American public, according to a
March 1969 Gallup poll.
Thirty-three years later, some of those students who are
California citizens and can vote take advantage of the amendment,
others remain too busy, too lazy or too uninformed.
School work can be too consuming for some.
“I’ve been studying, so I don’t know anything
about the election,” said third-year electrical engineering
student Teddy Hsu. “I’m not really interested in
politics.”
With reports from Robert Salonga, Daily Bruin Staff.
