Franklin Roosevelt said “Nobody will ever deprive the American people of the right to vote except the American people themselves-and the only way they could do this is by not voting.” The same can be said for any nation’s people. We note that the percentage of youth going out to vote seems be on the increase. In 2004 37% of youth (18-24) went out to vote, in 2006 it increased to 44%. Currently there is a push by “vote mobs” to get university students out to vote and with the power of Twitter and Facebook there appears to be some success in getting youth engaged in politics.
In the past we have seen youth become engaged when there has been a charismatic leader or when social issues were at the forefront of a campaign. In the USA youth were involved in the Sixties with issues such as the Vietnam War, Civil Rights and Women’s Rights. Recently we saw Barack Obama bring out the youth vote during the 2008 presidential campaign.
This election is focusing a lot on health care and a possible coalition government, topics of little interest to most youth. It will be interesting to see if anything in the next few days can turn the election around and arose the interest of our youth to get out there and exercise their right to vote. The bottom line, voting can turn tides, your votes do count particularly when one looks at the “popular vote”.
Get involved, be informed, exercise the vote your forefathers and foremothers fought so hard to get.
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