YouSpeak: To Vote or Not to Vote

Students discuss issues that matter to them in tomorrow’s midterm elections

Watch this video on YouTube

Regardless of who wins tomorrow, this election will be remembered for the anger of the Tea Party movement and for the unprecedented expense of some gubernatorial, Senate, and House races. But will all of that money fuel the predicted Republican sweep of the House? Or will young voters emerge in sufficient numbers to stave off a GOP juggernaut? In 2008, voters between the ages of 18 and 29, who accounted for 18 percent of the electorate, overwhelmingly threw their support behind Barack Obama. But history shows us that in midterm elections like tomorrow’s, young voters tend to take a pass.

Wanting to hear whether students are planning to vote tomorrow and about the issues that matter to them in this election year, we ask in our weekly feature, “YouSpeak”: “Do you plan to vote in this year’s midterm elections?”

“YouSpeak” appears each Monday.

If you have a suggestion for a question we should ask, post it in the comments section below.

John O’Rourke can be reached at orourkej@bu.edu. Nicolae Ciorogan can be reached at ciorogan@bu.edu.

  • Share this story
  • 3 Comments Add

Share

YouSpeak: To Vote or Not to Vote

Share

Comments & Discussion

Boston University moderates comments to facilitate an informed, substantive, civil conversation. Abusive, profane, self-promotional, misleading, incoherent or off-topic comments will be rejected. Moderators are staffed during regular business hours (EST) and can only accept comments written in English. Statistics or facts must include a citation or a link to the citation.

There are 3 comments on YouSpeak: To Vote or Not to Vote

  1. First off, the fact that people who can vote do not vote is terrible.
    My main reason for commenting is related to this statement by the author:
    “Or will young voters emerge in sufficient numbers to stave off a GOP juggernaut?”

    This leads one to believe that young voters are primarily democrats. This is surely not true, while a large amount of young voters maybe there are those who are not. Like myself and others. So these students will not all vote for the democrats.
    This question is a bold assessment of a general trend of young democrats, but is one that reaches far beyond any plausible research that the author has done.

    Not all of us young voters are democrats and not all of us hope for the democrats to retain power.

    Reply
    Link

  2. Totally agree that not all young voters are democrats. That’s just bias and nonsense. Also, we young people are the ones most affected by the nonsense of the current government: no jobs, high health premiums, and o, and on. Who are we kidding> I will vote, but not for the democrats.

    Reply
    Link

  3. Or perhaps only those young voters who take time to learn about politics and US history come to realize the importance of congress and that we are a republic not a democracy. And more importantly, that republicanism underlies the system of government that makes this nation so great. If young people take time to do this a turn out en mass in 2012 we might even have a chance to restore the republic and put and end to the efforts of those who would like to change it into a “democracy” which is nothing more than a euphemism for mob rule. As Benjamin Franklin said: “A Republic if you can keep it”. We will soon find out if we have what it takes to keep it or if we instead will choose to trade essential liberty for temporary security.

    Reply
    Link

Post a comment.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Latest from BU Today