By: Savannah Miller
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. —
During the 2014 Mid-Term elections nearly 27 million people voted early. Now four years later voters have surpassed that number by reaching almost 39 million people. The 2018 Mid-Term elections bring many to the polls however only twenty percent of the 18 to 24-year-old demographic will hit the voting booths.
University of Arkansas UATV political analyst, Janine Perry says government officials want to hear what the voters want but if young adults don’t vote then their voice can’t be heard. “It’s why social security and medicare are so frequently on the agenda. It’s not just that those are major social safety net programs. They help a lot of people but it’s mainly because they benefit the people who vote. And so there is a reciprocal relationship between policy makers and voters.”
Young voters struggle to vote because of the many obstacle they face as college students. From lack of money to time, the young voter statistic continues to stay in the twenty percent percentile.
Despite the number of young voters, University of Arkansas senior Elonay Yehualashet says she works to persuade her peers to be active voters. “I think it’s pretty powerful because the thing is you have these power structures that have been maintained for so long and the power structures have been maintained because of certain socioeconomic, political and historical contributions which kept certain people out of booths. And so the college vote is essentially dismantling those systems that were built.”
The University of Arkansas Associated Student Government works to increase college voter turnout by offering free transportation to local Fayetteville voting booths and educating students on the importance of their vote.