Appeal, don’t condescend, to young voters

While reading “Youth Could Decide Minnesota,” I started feeling like my voice had a very good chance at getting heard in this year’s election. As I read on, however, I got the sense that you believe Americans, ranging from 18-24, could care less about their political voice. The statistics used from the last election to show our voter turn-out were condescending, making it seem like young adults have no respect for their country, and therefore making us look unpatriotic. Declaring that there is a small chance that the amount of voters will climb effortlessly supports those who won’t vote because of the feeling that we don’t matter. There has always been the “my one vote won’t matter anyways” thought among teenagers. In order to get us to vote, we need to be shown that we matter. When trying to appeal to young voters, it doesn’t help to put us down. We incessantly hear that from our elders.

Steven Slayden
University student