I have some real concerns about college students and their ability to #vote this year. I've spent more than 20 years working with these emerging adults and I care about them, and about their voices. I work to teach them HOW to think (not what, lest you worry)
2/ For traditional-age college students, it's often their very first chance to exercise their rights and responsibilities as citizens. That's exciting. Many don't vote. That's disappointing. They get written off as lazy and unmotivated. That's wrong.
3/ Students can and do care a lot about issues that affect them. They care about other issues, too. But it is hard for them to translate that into showing up to vote. There are a number of issues, some detailed in this paper. my.lwv.org/sites/default/…
4/ Time is always a problem. Many campuses hold classes on Election Day. For students who don't move their registration to the college town, that meets up another issue: life experience.
5/ Yes, absentee balloting is a thing. But did you know it has been AT LEAST 10 years since a majority of my students have known how to address and stamp an envelope? It also has its own set of deadlines to keep up with.
6/ Students can register and vote where they go to college. Even that can be confusing and difficult. Polling places are often not on campus, which is a problem for students with class to go to and no transportation. Time wins, civics loses.
7/ Confusion on where and how to vote can even border on suppressive. In a good year. This is not a good year. washingtonpost.com/politics/in-ru…
8/ As campuses are opening, experiencing #COVID outbreaks and closing, voting is getting much more complicated. What happens if that absentee ballot is going to campus? What if you are registered in the college town and move home? More uncertainty = less participation.
9/ And honestly, if you gleefully moved to the independence of college only to dolefully head back home in a miasma of confusing online classes and regret, arranging to vote is probably not top of mind.
10/ And now those deadlines for getting absentee ballots and returning them have changed from deadlines to conflicting advice because of issues with the #USPS and a bigger demand for absentee voting due to fear of the pandemic.
11/ I hope those of us who care about young adult voices will do what we can to cut the confusion (that includes college staff and parents of students - looking at you, Mom and Dad).
