Participation among young voters is higher this year than in the 2016 and 2018 elections and they are excited about voting by mail in November, but access to information on registration and how to vote during the coronavirus pandemic could be a problem , a new Survey shows.
The nonpartisan poll from the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Participation (CIRCLE) found that 83 percent of young voters said they believe young people have the power to change the country, and 60 percent feel they are part of a movement that will vote to express their views, and 79 percent said the pandemic helped them realize that politics is impacting their lives.
But the survey also highlighted the challenges of participating in elections because it was conducted during a national health crisis and did not obtain clear and precise information on online registration and voting by mail.
A third said they did not know if they could register to vote online in their state, and of those 25 percent were incorrect. Furthermore, only 24 percent of respondents have voted by mail before.
“If ballot mailing becomes the primary voting method in the 2020 election, it will be an unknown process for most young people,” according to the survey. “The electoral processes are changing and will probably vary from state to state. Youth access, information, and familiarity with online voter registration (OVR) and voting by mail will be critical. ”
Abby Kiesa, director of impact for CIRCLE, the independent research organization that collected the data, said the lack of access to voter information raises questions about how many young voters will act based on their enthusiasm.
“The most important flag for me is this need for guidance on basic ‘small d’ democratic processes like voter registration and voting by mail,” Kiesa told NBC News. “Clearly we have some systemic problems in reaching young people with this information. And so these numbers, in a pandemic, when there will be fewer methods to reach young people is a serious, serious concern. “
The CIRCLE / Tufts College poll surveyed 2,232 eligible voters between the ages of 18 and 29 from May 20 to June 18. It oversampled youth 18-21, Asian, Black, Latino, and Republican youth. The margin of error was +/- 4.1 percentage points.
The survey showed that 34.5 percent of young Asian American voters and 25 percent of whites have had mail voting experience, compared to 22 percent of blacks and 20% of Latinos. Those numbers were heavily influenced by geography: Young voters in Asia and America are concentrated in the western states, where voting by mail is more common, while young black voters are concentrated in the south, where a vote is often required. excuse to vote absentee.
NAACP President Derrick Johnson told NBC News that his organization has tried different approaches to increase voter turnout in the past two years, and in particular how they are working to turn racial justice activism into a boost for votes. in the fall.
“That’s the opportunity before us,” said Johnson. “When you look at the protesters, it really looks like the United States … The opportunity here is how to get people to march from the protest to the actual vote in November, and that’s part of the commitment we are making now and the workers to boost the start of talks towards the November elections. “
Young voters who spoke to NBC News echoed the findings of the data.
“I have no doubt the excitement is there,” said Andy Xie, 20, a registered Democrat from Ann Arbor, Michigan, who is voting in his first presidential election.
“What I would say is that for young voters in particular, it is not that we do not want to vote, and it is not that we are not requesting absentee ballots, it is that the process of voting is very, very difficult.”
“The main type of obstacles to participation, apart from logistics, is just apathy or just not caring enough to go through all those motions,” he added.
Gennie Weiler, 20, of Minneapolis, told NBC News that she feels confident and eager to vote by mail, especially after seeing successes with ballots mailed primarily in primaries like Colorado.
“I am in the middle of the road where I am not heavily involved in politics abroad, but I am strong in my own convictions about it,” he said of his own political views, while maintaining his desire to vote. the overall, noting that her parents voted for President Donald Trump in 2016.
While Trump has argued that voting by mail would lead to fraudulent ballots, and claimed without evidence that foreign countries will manufacture fake mail ballots to manipulate elections, several states already allow voting by mail, and even more states have loosened absentee voting rules due to the pandemic.
According to a recent Fox News poll, nearly two-thirds of registered voters are in favor of voting by mail for the November election due to the pandemic. And to counter the traditional “youth don’t vote” narrative, some mail-ballot studies have found that mail-ballot states, like Oregon, have seen strong turnout among young voters.
And new PNAS research, the Proceedings of the United States National Academy of Sciences, shows that voting by mail does not affect the participation of either party or the participation of the vote.
