Although young voters are seen as politically inactive, a number of Boston University students said the youth vote is key, especially in the upcoming election.
“We need to have a voice, and obviously as students we don’t have a lot of money, so this is the best way we can exercise our right to vote, exercise our voice and let politicians know the issues we care about as students,” said Caitlin Mauk, a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences. “If we get large amounts of young people to vote, politicians have to listen to us.”
Olivia Shendell, a sophomore in COM, said she registered to vote as soon as she turned 18.
“I have a lot of friends who are like ‘I don’t believe in the government because they’re doing horribly, so I’m not going to vote because I’m really upset with them,’” she said. “If you’re upset with them now, vote so hopefully there is a change.”
David Moy, a sophomore in the College of Engineering, said students have the ability to make a significant impact on the elections, especially since students tend to be more open-minded.
“Students can sway the results the most — I think they’re the most open-minded, and they haven’t had experience from past Republican or Democratic parties as much, like thoughts from the past, so they wouldn’t vote necessarily based on party on much,” he said.
Mauk, president of the BU College Democrats, said members try to promote voting. They have tables set up to provide registration forms for Massachusetts. They help those from other states find the information and resources they may need to vote, she said.
The BU College Republicans put in similar efforts toward promoting the youth vote.
“I think that especially being in Boston, there’s a lot of different ways to getting involved, as opposed to being isolated on a small campus,” said member Michael Neminski, a sophomore in CAS. “There’s a lot of different organizations trying to contact you, trying to recruit you for their side, or trying to get you to sign up in general, especially with the State House being so close.”
Blair Woods, a CAS freshman who recently signed up to vote, said she has seen a lot of voting promotion on campus.
“We are one of the few countries that allow people to vote and decide what their government is, so why not take advantage of that?” she said. “Some people think that by not voting, it doesn’t really matter because they’re just one person, but people add up and that’s what makes a difference.”
Nemenski said students need to register to vote to make a difference.
“I think it’s important for people to vote because you want your voice to be heard, and come four years if you didn’t vote and things are bad off, I don’t think you have the right to complain,” he said.
When considering why they should vote, students look at what it took to get to this point, he said.
“Years in the past, people have fought for this right, people have died for this right, people have put so much effort for this right,” Moy said. “And although in reality, it might not be as powerful as it may sound just because of how big this country is, the principle of voting shows that you still support this right.”
This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.
