Why the Largest and Most Diverse Generation in US History Needs to Vote
Folks, this is a big election year, and it’s important that everyone is voting. Last year, 24% of eligible Americans weren’t registered to vote. That’s a problem.
While an Automatic Voter Registration bill, which would automatically register anyone with a driver’s license, is gaining momentum, only 28 states plus the District of Columbia have considered measures in 2016 that would allow automatic registration of citizens who interact with government agencies. This means there’s still a lot of work to be done.
We need to push those who are able to register to vote, and once registered, to actually vote. This is particularly important among folks who are young and who are minorities.
There are more than 80 million millennials in the U.S., and they’re becoming the largest and most diverse generation in the history of our country. Seriously—according to an Atlantic article, the under-30 generation’s the most diverse adult demographic in American history. But we need to do better when it comes to equity and access to voting, and I’m not the only one who thinks so. The Declaration of Independence says that we're equal under law, but there are states where Americans' voting rights are at risk.
Just take a look at this infographic my team put together in March after surveying 1,006 Americans over the age of 18. We found that 6x more Hispanic than White voters and 4x more African American than White voters report waiting in line 30+ minutes to vote.The consensus was that when it comes to ensuring equality at the polls, we should be doing better.
Regardless of your political opinion, it’s important that everyone who’s eligible is registering to vote. And with today’s tech, it’s easier than ever to register from your laptop or smartphone. To register to vote, head over to https://turbovote.org/. For even more information, check out these voting rights orgs that I support:
- Rock the Vote
- Voto Latino
- Election Protection
- Advancement Project
- League of Women Voters
- Brennan Center for Justice
Hope to see you at the polls….
The only Mellenials working are our Soldiers, there are an average of 20 / DAY committing suicide...countless being killed while people have the freedom provided by these children of ours to blah, blah blah why they are not voting or ?!?....PATHETIC!......Thank you all for lending me your ear and kindly giving me your time...........Old Soldier.
Visiting Professor, Researching the Science and Technologies of Collaborative Intelligence and Co-Creation. Zealand, Denmark.
8 年Call me trivial (or a Maths teacher) but I wonder what the odds are that sometime over the next 4 years we will have a Hillary on both sides of the Atlantic.
Conservative Journalist and Blogger. Political activist. Author of over 4,000 magazine and newspaper articles and blogs. Ivy-educated Ph.D.
8 年Craig, since you are 63 and a fellow Baby Boomer, how about identifying with and empathizing with your own generation (age 52-70 this year)? Boomers make up the greatest part of the constituency of Gray Americans age 50 and over, who are already over 43 percent of the US population - or more than 2 in 5 of us - close to half of American women (since women still outlive men by several years), and about half of U.S. voters (since those age 0-17 can't vote). The Demographics are very similar throughout the Developed World and China, and Gray Voting Power is beginning to have a strong effect in many countries and regions. As a prime example, the Brexit vote was almost entirely due to strong turnout from UK citizens over age 50. As for Millennials now outnumbering Boomers - albeit not by much - one wonders if that would have been the case without the loose immigration policies of the past three decades - immigration policies which are bones of contention in this election and others to come. In any case, it is we Grays over age 50 who have been the main victims of the misguided policies of the Limousine Liberals, which have caused economic chaos and catastrophe on a scale not seen since the Great Depression: outsourcing, downsizing, the decimation of middle management, housing crises, market crashes, and the hollowing out of manufacturing, resources, and Main Street small business. Grays are responsible for the Populism sweeping the Developed World (plus China) now. And in the U.S. - well, wait and see how we vote this year.