By DEDRIA HUMPHRIES BARKER
For two months now, I have been involved in my sorority’s GOTV effort. GOTV stands for Get Out the Vote. Because of my efforts to register voters in Ingham County, I read with a critical eye Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson’s June 2024 report, “Michigan’s Youth Voting: Closing the Voting Gaps.” That report looked at the 2020 presidential election and the 2022 midterm elections and the performance of young voters. It was like, get a ballot, mark it, and turn it in so it gets counted. And young voters — those 18 and 29 year olds — failed.
Discussing the data on young voters in terms of non-voting can be confusing. Overall, 1.4 million young voters were registered in Michigan for the 2020 presidential election, and about 40 percent did not vote. But that also means that statewide, 60% voted. But let’s look at the county-level data: In fewer than 10 of 83 counties, young voters voted at the 50 percent level. But compared to Luce County in the Upper Peninsula near the Rabbit’s Tail, where 77% of young voters did not vote, a 50% non-voting rate is great.
There are two types of voters: those who are registered to vote and voters who actually vote. Non-voters can be thought of as the human equivalent of credenzaware. Credenzaware is a report that is stored in a filing cabinet and never acted upon.
The SOS report shows that education is linked to voting. It should come as no surprise that Washtenaw County, home to Eastern Michigan University and the University of Michigan, tops the list of young voters in the 2022 midterm elections. Two other counties with good numbers are Ottawa County and Clinton County in Mid-Michigan.
Ingham County – Spartan Country – showed that 62% of young voters cast a ballot in the November 2020 presidential election. That’s pretty good for elections. However, it also means that 38% of the state capital’s young voters did not vote.
New Yorker magazine political journalist Evan Osnos said some young people feel it is pointless to vote because the political system is failing them in their concerns. Young people live in fear of mass shootings at schools because our political representatives refuse to “make any meaningful change,” he said.
The SOS report says young people want to see structural changes in politics and government, such as limiting the terms of U.S. Supreme Court justices or restricting access to guns. But they believe voting is just one means to achieve this. Mobilization and organizing can work too, they say.
Young people who are not registered to vote are not part of the SOS report, but sometimes young people do not vote because they are not registered.
As I was walking to my neighborhood barber shop to register voters on a busy Friday morning, I met an 18-year-old black man. When he arrived, the barber asked him if he drove himself to the barber shop. The answer was no.
SOS offices register 91% of voters when they get their driver’s license and ID card, but learning to drive is a matter of money. Schools used to offer driving lessons, but the cost of learning to drive was passed on to families. Families have to find a driving school for driving lessons. Not everyone can afford the hundreds of dollars for driving lessons. Even with home driving lessons, the driving part of the driving test must be taken by a driving instructor. Of course, one can register as a voter directly at the municipal clerk’s office, which contradicts the driving license model, but in a sense these young people cannot afford to register as voters. And registration is necessary to vote.
Why don’t young voters vote? One reason, says SOS Benson, is that they have to change their work or school schedules to vote. But there are other ways to vote, including mail-in voting and early voting. Some young voters just don’t know how to vote.
Another young black man, leaving the barbershop with a short haircut, said he was registered to vote, but when asked if he planned to vote in the upcoming primary election, his face twisted into a question mark: What is a primary?
Whose job is it to educate voters about our electoral system? Candidates campaign to specifically get votes for themselves, and the best indicator of who will vote is who has voted. Young voters are a blank slate when it comes to voting activity. Political campaigns, including my campaign for the Lansing City Charter Commission, target people who have already demonstrated voting behavior.
“These are old people,” my husband said. “We have a vested interest in health insurance, income, and other entitlements from our government.”
“Young people need to learn how to make informed and sensible decisions for the greater good,” explains the Michigan Department of Education. That’s why high school civics classes provide political education and education in the areas of American government. This course is required for graduation and is required by the Michigan Merit Curriculum.
But how much attention is given to teaching civics, given how old high school is? Is taking civics before senior year—and making voter registration a requirement—a solution? The state allows pre-registration of voters as young as 16, up to two years before the legal voting age of 18. Most high school graduates are already 18 by senior year. Can voting be the high school graduation experience?
The transition from child to adult can be overwhelming. It can feel like you’re starring in the movie “Everything, Everywhere.” Most of the privileges of an adult begin at 18: You can vote without parental consent, get married, drive a car with a passenger at night, apply for a passport, and buy a gun from a friend. At 21, you can buy alcohol and a joint from a gun dealer.
The point is that young voters choose voting first when choosing their adult behavior.
(Dedria Humphries Barker is the author of Mother of Orphans: The True and Curious Story of Irish Alice, A Colored Man’s Widow. Her column appears monthly.)
