Register Voters. Win the future.

by Nicholas Mitch (IN)

When talking to my fellow high school students and attempting to persuade them to register to vote for the first time, I’m often faced with the question, “Why should I?”. No matter how many times I’m asked it, I’m still usually somewhat unable to answer it fully, not because I do not have an answer, but because the answer I have is far too long.

Voting, and the necessary precursor (unless you’re in North Dakota) of registering to vote, is our responsibility as citizens of this great nation. Around the world, people are literally dying as they fight to receive the rights, not the least of which is the right to vote, that so many of us take for granted. However, I feel confident in saying that all eligible YDA members are already registered to vote; that’s where this responsibility goes a step further. For us, the civic duty of registering our self to vote expands into a duty to ensure that our peers register as well.

However, more than a civic duty, voter registration efforts make campaign sense for us as Democrats. We’ve heard the mantra again and again –“When young people vote, Democrats win.” — and we’ve seen the statistics proving it to be true, most notably in 2008 and 2012. While young voters did support President Obama over Mitt Romney by a 23-point margin (60% to 37%) and that is something to be proud of, we must also consider and address the unpleasant fact that only 45% of Americans aged 18–29 voted. Could we have won even more races if the turnout had been closer to the 61% turnout of those 65 and older? So, forget everything else you know about campaigns — GOTV, Voter ID, Persuasion, Canvassing–just for a moment, and consider how crucial voter registration is to every campaign effort you’ve led, staffed, or volunteered on. Voter registration is the foundation upon which all other aspects of campaigns are based on so, especially in what is a non-election year for most of the country, it is a natural focus for us as Young Democrats.

Nicholas Mitch (IN) is Chair of YDA’s High School Caucus

Originally published at http://www.yda.org/register-voters-win-the-future/