It is troubling that where a voter’s power to affect elections for candidates and issues (propositions and initiatives) is strongest, their participation is the least.
Voting in primary local elections is much lower than in general elections. And off-year elections (not presidential or congressional), such as tomorrow’s, have even lower voter participation.
Why is this a problem? Historically turnout rates are comparatively low for young people, minorities, and the poor. If we look across the spectrum of issues facing us – our climate future, income inequality and equity – it is likely that policymakers and policies up for votes would be more likely to address these three crises if those most affected voted.
Let’s take one aspect for which there is available data, younger voters.
Slammed by the forces of economic inequality (housing, loss of union jobs, education costs, tax policy etc.) and facing the effects of climate change in ways that older voters won’t, you would think they would be highly motivated to change course.
First, primary elections in one-party dominant jurisdictions pretty much decide who will be elected. A bit less so since Washington adopted the top two process where two candidates from the same party can end up on the General Election ballot. That said, analyzing the voter data for Thurston County’s 2023 August primary shows that voters over the age of 65, who are only 21% of the 18 or over population, were 56% of all those who voted. This means that this age cohort determined the outcome for the other four-fifths.
There are two ways this happens.
First, within their own age group, 55% of registered seniors voted while a depressingly low 14% of registered 18- to 24-year-olds voted.
Source: https://www.sos.wa.gov/elections/data-research/2023-primary-election
Second, 18- to 24-year-olds are 11% of the 18 or over population but only 8% of registered voters. In contrast, seniors are 21% of the population but are 28% of those who are registered to vote.
The situation is about the same for the population aged 25 to 34. They have almost the same failure to vote rate at the 18- to 34-year-olds.
The result of registering more and voting more once registered in the last primary election was that, per voter, seniors are punching over 2.5 times their population weight. The youth votes are barely punching at all with an electoral voice that is one-quarter (24%) of what their population numbers would be if they voted. To summarize it in a single stat, adjusted for relative population size, a single senior has 11 times more influence on the election outcome than a single 18- to 24-year-old.
Polls show that younger voters have different takes on our national and local policies. It is easy to believe that our policies would be much different if we had greater voter participation by younger age groups.
While it is true that younger people are more likely to sign petitions and more than twice as likely to participate in demonstrations, (source) somehow their civic engagement misses voting and where they would have the most immediate impact.
There are a lot of ideas out there that can affect mobilizing the youth vote, but that is the subject of a different article as the election is tomorrow.
Especially if you are younger, take advantage of our incredibly easy voting processes. Thurston County has online registration up to a week before the election (too late for that now).
Even at this late date you may register and vote in person tomorrow, Election Day, November 7, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.: at the following locations:
Timberland Libraries
~ Larry Dzieza, Olympia
5 comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here
ConservativeHippie
Is it possible to completely agree with someone on their result, and completely disagree with someone on their premise to the result?
Wow. Local + climate change! The plight of the young and disenfranchised without mentioning taxation and inflation as a result of governmental impact on both. Blindly typing propagandist terminology without any evidentiary back-up on the correlation. NO! I say NO!
YES!! The youth need to turn out. Use their vote. But it should be in the face of the propaganda that got them into this situation of despair. And to imply this is new .... the old dominating the vote total. Oh geez.
When I go out and talk to voters, and citizens, the odd year elections don't interest them because it is so hard to know the issues and candidates. It does take effort, and well, the youth have many more things to worry about than investigating the county and port commissioner positions.
The low turnout is a tragedy. I sit in agreement we need more people voting. But also, more people reading and understanding the issues, and more people seeking accountability within governance. If the youth participated, they would clearly see the policies that got them into the inflationary spiral they find themselves in, and vote appropriately.
Unfortunately the old folks of Thurston County got us into this position, and now we rely on them to vote differently to get us out.
Tuesday, November 7, 2023 Report this
Olywelcomesall
Thank you Larry for pointing out the importance of voting in each election, even the “off year” elections. It takes a small bit of research to assess each candidate yet it makes a big difference. This one in particular will influence the direction of county government and port of Oly policy for many years. Many issues important to younger voters are in play during this election. I hope on this election day we will see a last minute decision by many younger voters to get their vote into an easy to find ballot box.
Tuesday, November 7, 2023 Report this
AugieH
Conventional wisdom has it that age brings sagacity.
Tuesday, November 7, 2023 Report this
WayTooOld
Thank you, Larry.
Wednesday, November 8, 2023 Report this
Southsoundguy
Hopefully younger voters vote democracy out of existence.
Wednesday, November 8, 2023 Report this