With under a month left, the midterm election is coming up November 8th and the stakes are, as usual; high. With only half the people from ages 18-29 voting at the presidential election in 2020 the young generation does often get criticized for not getting involved in politics, which could be a serious problem for the future.
The midterm election determines who will control Congress and this will affect the future agenda of President Biden. Only one out of three Morningside University students (all 18 and above) could explain in-depth what the midterm election is.
Based of the three different interviews there was clearly an agreement on the lack of education on the topic politics. The 20-year-old Sophomore, Emma Dahlhoff, says “now that we’re coming in voter-age we should definitely educate on it. It is our duty to vote and so we should know what we’re voting for.”
There is clearly a willingness to learn more on the topic when speaking with the three women. Morningside University has so far only provided an event called “Voter’s registration day” and there are plans of having a satellite voting system. This voting system should be a help to make it easier to vote, but it might also be a way of getting students more aware of politics. In addition, Morningside has plans of making it possible for students to vote on campus.
With only having one event at Morningside University (so far) and a few future plans, there could definitely be more attention to the topic according to Ellie Barber. Ellie Barber is a 20-year-old Sophomore majoring in Political Science and president of MCU (a club in the political science department), she says “the older population vote so much more, so it’s important for the youth to understand that their voice and their opinion makes a difference.”
A national poll released today by the Institute of Politics at Harvard Kennedy School indicates that there was a sharp increase in youth (18-to-29-year-olds) believing their vote “doesn’t make a difference” (42%.) Despite the data collected from the three interviews it seems that there is also a big amount of the youth that does not think that politics is ‘important’ enough to vote for.
As Barber mentions, research shows that there is a gap between young adults and adults when it comes to voting. In 2016 fewer than half of Americans 18 to 29 voted in the presidential election — a gap of more than 15 points compared with the overall turnout.
Despite these numbers there is a collective agreement (from the three interviewees), that students at Morningside should be more informed. The three women are all willing to learn and grow on the topic.