Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Understanding Voting Behaviors Among College Students and their Surrounding Issues

Every year political election that comes around, the same issues are brought to surface when it involves getting college students to the polls and voting effectively. Whether it's them not being familiar with politics or not being interested in the candidates, factors similar to these, affects election outcomes every year.

Many people blame college students and start to question the ability of young voters but with all of the problems they run into when it comes to politics and voting, the question isn't whether young voters deliver but, "Its can the young voter deliver and effectively?"


The Transition to and from new areas for College Affects Student's Knowledge of Surrounding Politics


Demographics regarding politics and voting varies widely in the county of America. When it comes to students in higher education institutions, similar to any demographic, results after voting are interesting. The college students are the majority of young educated people.

When it comes to voting in elections, having an education plays a major role but there are also more factors that are starting to show in the results of elections. A problem today surrounding voter turnout is that many students are educated along general areas but are also in an awkward stage in their lives with transition to adulthood.
Figure 2
http://www.admissions.umd.edu/about/JustTheFacts.php


Student are most likely voting in another county-- let alone state, they are not familiar with-- resulting in uneducated people voting.

Based off the University of Maryland- College Park Student's Demographics, shown in Figure 2, Twenty-three percent of students are out of state students. Out of thirty- thousand students, that adds up to be about seven-thousand students voting in a state they are not familiar with. The numbers only increase when you break down Maryland residents and the counties they come from. This adds more students voting in a county, Prince George county, they are not familiar with.

Typically during this stage in an young adult's life they have been in a stable area for majority of the their life to learn about the politics in their area.

The transition to another city, state, or country, because of college, can cause a student to become uneducated regarding politics. These students that have moved around, will not know the politicians or issues in their new area. All they are familiar with is how things are at home. Therefore when it comes time to vote, some will vote and some will not.

For those who do vote and are not informed with important information needed, they are causing a disadvantage to what the outcomes could be. Uneducated student voters do not intend to effect the voting outcome negatively-- they only know the importance of voting therefore they still vote instead.

Students Who are Informed but lack Interest due to Understanding Politics


For students who are educated with politics, they are familiar with how American politics work. Sometimes knowing the operation and process can cause a lack of trust and interest.

In a study conducted by the Institute of Politics at Harvard University, over 60 percent of college undergraduates did not trust the Federal government to "do the right thing all or most of the time." Also, nearly two-thirds of college students felt selfish interests, rather than the public good, motivate elected officials.

Many students know the background of elections, therefore they most likely will not participate in the voting process at all. According to the same Harvard study over 85 percent of undergraduates believed that community volunteerism is more effective than political engagement in solving problems within the community and over 60 percent felt that volunteerism is more effective in addressing national issues as well.

Therefore one overall educated person, in this case, the average college student would choose to be physically active when it comes to activism rather than voting.



Often Media Coverage focuses more of presidential Elections rather then General Elections

If Students are participating in voting, it's most likely in the presidential elections. Professor Jason Nichols of the Univeristy of Maryland addresses the separation between the two elections.

The focus of television news is aimed more towards the presidential elections starting with the primary elections. According to the University of Deleware's research, the primary elections gets covered thirty-one percent while the general elections gets covered twenty-seven percent of the time. The difference is not that much of a range but that's just the beginning. When it comes to the actual presidential elections, the range becomes much more higher.

Students also lack interest with voting due to lack of relevant topics being covered

The other issue is that many of students are uninterested with politics in general if the topics or politicians do not apply to their lives. Although there is major news coverage on political topics, there aren't enough news coverage on topics that young college students connect with.

Professor Jason Nichols gave his professional observation from analyzing students over the years when it comes to reasons for low participation when voting.

They are at the beginning stage of adulthood therefore things like healthcare, gun control, and war procedures aren't the first things to touch home for him. They are just now around the age where these topics are surfacing therefore other topics such as drinking age, driving age, and other things that limit them at that age are more important.

When asking Professor Nichols, "What issues are students interested in?" He answered in the following video:


Because they are uneducated on the topics being covered, when it's time for voting, they are not interested anymore in voting as much as there would be if it was other topics.

With More Restrictions being in placed to avoid Voter Fraud, Students face more Obstacles 

Studies have shown that campus precincts are poorly unprepared to meet student demand.
Because of laws passed after 2004 election, the government has tried to be more strict when it comes to the polls due to voter fraud, therefore being a college student, especially outside of your voter registration area, you are doomed to run into problems.

Going to vote in the general elections this year, I found the preparation for voting inadequate. Based off of the University of Maryland- College Park's campus, there are over thirty- thousand students. For many of students, the campus is the only place where they can vote. Having that many students in about twelve hours vote with only four machines available, seems quite tedious for students with busy schedule-- which is most.

Then that brings in the other aspect of how students not registered in the area has to vote. They had to do a paper vote. For the paper vote, there were only five stations available for students. Personally the process lasted for about thirty minutes to forty minutes, luckily I was done with classes for the day so I did not run into a schedule problem but that was not the case for most students.

Not only can be voting on a campus be more time consuming than regular voting but it is can disorganized because campus voting is still fairly new that many campus are under staff. They will hire temps or new employees which are new to standard procedures. Therefore adding more chaos to a long time wait.

Students before hitting the polls are already faced with disadvantages due to new areas but then at the polls they are faced with even more issues. The United States or the Universities in America need to keep improving voting on campus for students. According to Campus Vote Project, "Apathy isn't the issue with getting college students to the polls. In 2010, less than thirteen percent of college students said the reason they didn't vote was because they were not interested." That being said, the issue is not getting the students to care, but more providing an easier way for them to vote.

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