Want young North Carolinians to vote? Show them that they matter.
On Thursday, the NC Democratic Party tweeted that only 7% of 18- to 30-year-olds in North Carolina had voted early. There were no other data points to show how the under 30 turnout compared to all other age groups; presumably, based on its tweet, older generations are running circles around younger voters.
The intent behind the tweet was to encourage young Democrats to vote before Tuesday’s election, but it isn’t just young people who will see it. For older generations, it reinforces the false equivalence that a low voter turnout is the fault of individuals, not a critical failure of our education systems and the political processes in North Carolina.
I am empathetic to people my age who don’t vote, especially those who feel that their votes don’t matter. It’s the byproduct of gerrymandering in North Carolina, the byproduct of a dismal education system and the byproduct of a Democratic Party that doesn’t see the entire picture of North Carolina’s electorate and continuously focuses on white moderates.
The recent state Supreme Court ruling on the Leandro case makes it abundantly clear that for at least 25 years, North Carolina public school students were not all receiving the same level of education. When students learn about voting at their high school, they are more likely to cast their ballot. North Carolina law requires its school districts to provide voter registration forms to students so that they can pre-register to vote when they turn 16, but it doesn’t mean all schools are actively handing out registration forms. Teenagers can also register to vote at the DMV, but only about a quarter of 16-year-olds in the U.S. get their license then.
You also need to consider home life: studies show you’re more likely to vote if your parents were voters. There are about 3 million North Carolinians who live in the state but aren’t registered to vote. This can’t be attributed solely to laziness. It can also be attributed to having foreign-born, non-naturalized parents who can’t vote, or having an incarcerated parent.
And then, of course, there’s the obvious: no one wants to appeal to us.
I have seldom heard Cheri Beasley or many candidates talk about issues like climate change; I didn’t know Beasley wanted to legalize marijuana recreationally and medicinally until I watched the debate. That’s one of the reasons John Fetterman’s campaign to be Pennsylvania’s senator has been so notable nationwide — it’s clear that his team is young, that he has a sense of humor, and he knows how to speak “our language,” in all of its irony-poisoned, chronically online infamy.
Durham County is a surprising outlier in all of this. According to voting data compiled by the conservative John Locke Foundation, young people in Durham County voted at a rate comparable to voters over 65. I’m a Durham resident, and there is a strong culture of voting here. There are signs everywhere, and more people have knocked on my door and sent me mailers this year than in 2020. NC Central University holds march to the polls events. There is an emphasis on the joy of voting — yes, we should think of it as another task the state needs us to complete, but it is also a right that so many have fought for us to have.
It’s possible that Durham is an outlier. It’s also possible that a lot of this is just another generation’s lament of “kids these days.” According to Tufts University research, North Carolina has seen a 14% increase in the number of 18-24 year olds registered from 2018 to 2022. The 2018 midterm was the highest voter turnout since the United States lowered the voting age to 18. I’d hardly say young people are slacking on votes.
At the end of the day, North Carolina is an average state in terms of youth voter participation, and national data shows that youth voters are slowly but consistently showing up in higher numbers to vote. Yes, everyone should vote, but before casting blame, ask why huge swaths of teenagers and young adults aren’t doing so.
