By Sarah Zabel, 15, Jonathan Gainer, 16, Y-Press
Published: August 20, 2008
This election, much fuss has been made about the voting potential of young adults. Candidates have reached out to youth through social networking sites, such as Facebook and MySpace, and in frequent visits to college campuses.
But part of this demographic has long been overlooked.
Non-college youth, young adults not attending college, make up roughly 50 percent of the 26.9 million 18- to 25-year-olds in this country.
Are these young people being engaged by politicians as their college-bound peers have been? Abby Kiesa, a youth coordinator CIRCLE — the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at the University of Maryland — says no.
“The rate at which college students are voting is significantly higher than the rate at which young people between the ages of 18 and 29 who have no college experience are voting,” Kiesa said in a recent phone interview.
CIRCLE released a 2004 fact sheet that reported only 34 percent of non-college youth, ages 18-24, turned out to vote in the 2004 presidential election compared to the 59 percent of college students. It also found that while 1 in 4 college students in the Super Tuesday states went to the polls this year, only 1 in 14 non-college youth did.
Why are non-college youth not as engaged?
One issue is outreach. While presidential candidates and organizations like Rock the Vote appear on college campuses, outreach to non-college youth isn’t nearly as extensive.
“There is no question that most of the youth-voter mobilization activity has gravitated toward the college side because it’s an easy place to start. It’s where, by definition, you have nothing but young people,” said Andy Bernstein, executive director of HeadCount, a nonprofit located in New York dedicated to the voter registration of youth at concerts.
“When you get away from colleges, where else do young people go? I think that no one has really found the formula for really, really reaching the 18- to 24- year-old non-college student.”
An increasing number of organizations, including HeadCount, are attempting to target this population. As Bernstein said, the trouble is finding these young adults. Since they are not attending college, there is no obvious congregating place, like a college campus.
"It’s also a lot harder to reach people who don't go to school because they’re joining unions a lot less," said Darryl Perkins, outreach coordinator for the Hip Hop Caucus, referring to the decreasing membership in the nation’s labor unions, which had once been a major target for politicians seeking votes. The Hip Hop Caucus, which also is focused on engaging and educating youth on political issues and policies, has been trying to reach out to non-college youth by doing door-to-door canvassing and holding rallies in urban neighborhoods and by providing cell phone blasts and audio and video PSA messages to young adults.
and “You know, it’s something that I think every group has tried to get their arms around,” said Bernstein. “I just sort of looked around at the concert community and said, you know, if everybody who was attending the same concerts that I am voted, it would really be a very loud voice.”
For Bernstein, concerts have been one way to reach youth, but are they non-college youth?
Since signing up voters is HeadCount’s priority, not data collection, he doesn’t really know his group’s success among non-college youth. But that problem isn’t unique to HeadCount.
“I guess fundamentally I’ll say that it’s hard to tell the difference between what is actually reaching college students and what’s reaching young people who aren’t in college. There’s very little ways of actually tracking that,” said Kiesa.
But it’s not only organizations that are having trouble reaching non-college youth; it seems to be a problem for presidential candidates as well.
“I mean campaigns and candidates are really focused on a lot on young people, and certainly much more compared to when I was in high school, but I’d say candidates have a lot more to do to reach out to this particular group of young people,” said Kiesa.
Ron Paul and Barack Obama were among the first candidates to reach out to young people via the Internet. Not only did they have their own campaign Web sites, but they also utilized Facebook and MySpace as ways to attract supporters and get out their messages.
Supporters, in turn, used these same sites to arrange get-togethers with their peers, not only to discuss political ideas and issues but also to gather for rallies or as a show of support for their chosen candidates. These events were called “meet-ups.”
“You just say, ‘Hey. We’re going to meet here on this day. Be there or be square,’” said Machlyn Blair, 21, of Jeremiah, KY, who has participated in such events.
Blair is one of those elusive non-college voters. “I feel like if I don’t vote and anything happens, I don’t have any say about it because I didn't vote," he said.
Blair believes that social-networking Web sites may be candidates’ best means of reaching voters like him. “I feel like those are really good tools to find people and to get in contact with people,” he said.
Engaging non-college voters is in the country’s best interest. Not only is their participation vital in a representative democracy, but also their viewpoints and experiences give them a perspective different from that of their college peers.
“Non-college youth worry a lot more about domestic issues than college students. They have to worry more about what minimum wage is going to look like, if they are going to be able to afford health care, and where the economy is going,” said Willa Johnson, 22, of.McRoberts, KY.
To Johnson, who is creating a documentary on the youth vote, particularly dealing with non-college voters, economic concerns are pre-eminent for adults who aren’t full-time students. “They have to worry more about that than college students because college students are told that once they have that degree, that’s all going to be taken care of. Non-college youth have to think about those issues because that’s going to directly affect them in the now, not the future,” the AppalShop intern said.
Blair, an AppalShop intern, says the issues that most concerned him and his peers are “dealing with the price of gas and how much money we’re going to make at whatever job we do and whether or not we can go to college, you know, things like that.”
LaNisha Martin, 20, from urban Milwaukee, shares those worries, and she says many of the part-time students she knows do, too.
“I believe community college students have the same issues as a non-college student,” said Martin. “Things like finding jobs, health care, and affordable housing.”
Blair and Martin agree that, if candidates aren’t reaching out now and listening to non-college youth, their issues will not be addressed in time for the election.
Blair feels that the candidates have a desire to talk to young people but says they don’t know how to go about it. When candidates arrange meetings and discussions at places like city hall and town centers, youth often don’t feel comfortable in those environments.
“I think they need to have a couple public forums and not just go to a college, like go out in the towns where young people hang out,” said Blair.
Martin agrees.
“Most of the non-college students stay in the inner city. You can find them just outside hanging around at local parks, shopping malls, and street corners, especially in Milwaukee because there is nothing to do,” she said.
Geography may always be an impediment for politicians to meet up with these potential voters. One group, however, believes it has found a way to reach all potential voters at once, regardless of whether they are work- or college-bound: Contact them in high schools.
Marco Ceglie started Vote 18, which brings an interactive voting game to high schools around the country. The game highlights the history of voting and engages students in a mock election where the students are the candidates.
“What we’re trying to do is show students that voting is in their best interest.” said Ceglie.
Ceglie is onto something that organizations trying to reach non-college youth are slowly figuring out—high school is the final place to reach non-college kids before they graduate and disappear into the world.
“After high school is when people start breaking up along socioeconomic and educational lines,” said Ceglie.
CIRCLE has seen how high school curriculum can affect future civic engagement in select students.
“Young people go to schools and they have particular experiences, which may or may not affect their future participation. That’s a big unequal situation; there’s a big disparity there. If you’re a young person and you’re in high school, you are more likely to have experiences discussing issues and learning about how laws are made if you are white and if you go to a school that’s slightly more affluent. So it’s kind of on the average higher socioeconomic status,” said Kiesa.
She stresses that such interactive classes need to be available at all high schools, for all students, if all young people are to become voters and ensure their voices are heard.
“If you don’t have the opportunity in high school, you’re less likely to have that personal efficacy or confidence that you can play a role in something,” said Kiesa.
Contributors: Tommy Mangan, 12, Ali Rader, 18, Justin Byers, 15.
Here are some nonprofits that target non-college-bound students to increase voter registration and civic engagement.
HeadCount
www.headcount.org
info@headcount.org
Created in 2004, HeadCount is a nonprofit devoted to registering potential voters at concerts. Andy Bernstein and Marc Brownstein, co-chairs, saw a need for youth engagement and decided to combine that with their love of music and the concert community. In the last four years, HeadCount has registered over 70,000 voters, with the help of volunteers. To volunteer with HeadCount, visit www.headcount.org/volunteer.htm.
Vote 18
Executive Director: Marco Ceglie
(718) 483-6616
marco@vote18.org
Vote 18 is an organization that brings an interactive game to teach the history of voting to middle school and high school students. During one class period, it teaches students the importance of voting and being politically active in their communities. High school students can join the Vote 18 community and its forums at http://vote18.ning.com/.
Hip Hop Caucus
(202) 293-5902
info@hiphopcaucus.org
Established in 2004, the Hip Hop Caucus is an organization that politically educates and engages young people or the “hip hop generation.” The group attracts young people through working with hip-hop artists, specifically T.I, the Hip Hop Caucus celebrity spokesperson. A convicted felon who hasn’t completed his sentencing, he no longer retains his voting privileges, so he works to have others vote in his place. To join a team that educates and registers voters, contact street_teams@hiphopcaucus.org
Appalachian Media Institute
(606) 633-0108
ami@appalshop.org
The Appalachian Media Institute is a program that teaches kids in central Appalachia to use video and sound equipment to document events their communities. It is a sector of AppalShop, a center of arts and education located in Kentucky. One of its members, Willa Johnson, is creating a documentary this summer featuring non-college youth. Frustrated with the lack of presidential attention, she set out to prove that non-college youth have opinions they want expressed.
