Hopefully, you have already registered to vote! If not, you still have time, but you need to hurry. Read about voting deadlines and how to register to vote here.
There is all this talk about needing to vote, but why is voting so important in our country? More specifically, why is it important for college students to vote?
As Assistant Professor of Political Science Dr. David Searcy explains, voting is important, but a key component of its importance lies in accountability.
“I mean, the obvious [reason to vote] that everyone says is to make your voice heard. But I would also say voting is how we hold politicians accountable for what we want done,” Dr. Searcy said.
When discussing voting with peers, a common response as to why one does not vote is “My vote does not matter.” While this is somewhat true for the presidential election in a state like Oklahoma which has swung Republican in every presidential election since 1964, there are so many other races that do matter a great deal to your life.
“So it’s not flawed in the sense that voting if you’re only focused on the President of the United States, one vote, particularly one vote in Oklahoma, is not going to make a difference,” Searcy said. “That being said, your vote absolutely matters in terms of whether you get listened to when there’s not an election. And in state and local races, which make a lot of decisions that directly affect you, in fact, more that directly affect your day-to-day life than what happens in Washington, DC, and in those cases, it can make a difference.”
Searcy went on to explain how close some local elections truly can be.
“In the spring last year, there was a local school board election that literally went to a runoff because of two votes. Two votes changed the outcome of that race. So, and that’s not the only example, but on those local races, your vote actually can be the determining factor on who wins and who loses,” Searcy said.
But why is it so important for us college students to vote? Going back to part one of this series, college-age voter turnout is bad. In 2022, less than half of all people aged 18-24 were registered to vote. Beyond that, Census.Gov reported that 51.4% of those registered to vote participated in the 2020 election. The college-age demographic generally votes the least out of any other age group.
“People in politics prioritize the policy goal, the policy wants and desires of groups that vote. So if you ever wondered, ‘Why do politicians seem to care more about what my grandmother wants than what I want?’ The answer is your grandmother and people her age vote at a higher rate than you do. The only way to change that is to vote and to participate because if your voter turnout is low, you’re less inclined to get listened to.”
Get out and vote this November. Voting is your voice, and your voice really does matter! Stay tuned for part three detailing how to make good voting decisions.
