Abortion, the minimum wage and inflation were all floated as issues young voters care about at a community conversation hosted by Defending Democracy, a subgroup of the Butler County Progressive PAC, on April 9 at Oxford Lane Library.
The conversation centered around encouraging young voters to be more civically engaged in advance of the 2024 presidential election. According to researchers from Tufts University, around 66% of all eligible students voted in the 2020 presidential election.
Around 10 community members gathered for the event, which featured guest speaker and Miami University junior Patrick Houlihan. Houlihan, a political science major, was recently named a delegate to the National Democratic Convention taking place in Chicago this August.
Houlihan kicked off the event with a presentation about youth voting and some of the challenges associated with it. The presentation covered topics including restrictions and barriers for young voters, lack of motivation for registering and apathy.
“It’s hard to get to the ballot box if you feel like your vote won’t count,” Houlihan said. “We need those attitudes to change.”
Houlihan said students can face a barrier to voting when poll workers do not understand the difference between voter registration address and an address that may be found on a photo ID. He also talked about what motivates young voters and noted a key difference between them and older voters.
“The youth don’t get excited about individual candidates as much,” Houlihan said. “They care more about specific issues.”
Following the presentation, the attendees broke into groups and discussed several strategies for getting young voters more engaged and causes for the lack of engagement. Generational differences, disinterest in political-oriented events and lack of adaptability from political leaders all came up.
“Somebody non-partisan should go to the sororities and fraternities, have them get out their phones and register them all to vote,” suggested Marilyn Elzey.
Josette Stanley, an Oxford resident originally from Luxembourg, said that voting culture is quite different between there and the U.S.
“In Luxembourg, you get registered to vote when you’re 18, and you have to vote until you’re 75. Nobody feels coerced, they really want to vote, but that just doesn’t happen here,” she said.
Jerome Stanley, event organizer and professor emeritus at Miami, said the organization is evaluating how to get more people, including students, at its events.
“We’re hearing that maybe people think these should be later, maybe closer to the election,” Stanley said. “We may try another one towards summer’s end, around September.”
