Young Americans volunteer but don't vote - Column

There is a growing chasm between civic and political involvement of 18- to 24-year-olds.

Youth turnout in the '98 elections was e lowest ever. According to exit polls, only 12.2 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds voted in recent midterm elections compared with 19 percent in 1994, a decline of nearly 40 percent. Yet at the same time that America's youth are not voting, they are out in the streets making a difference in their communities and volunteering in record numbers. UCLA's 1997 annual survey of college freshmen found that 73 percent of incoming freshmen had volunteered in the last year.

There is a growing chasm between civic and political involvement of 18- to 24-year-olds. Youth are volunteering in record numbers while voter turnout among this segment of the population has hit an all-time low.

Community based organizations are thriving because they offer results-oriented, issue-based involvement. Young volunteers see immediate results from their efforts.

The declining participation of the past elections proves youth don't get that feeling when they go into a voting booth. Young Americans do not think their vote affects politics or that politics affects them. It is very hard for a young person to justify registering to vote and taking time off from work or school to vote when there is little to no interest in the candidates and seemingly no connection between their vote and their daily lives. Volunteering is easier, closer to home and void of the heavy baggage and confusion of voting.

Why should a young generation be interested in politics? Curtis Gans, from the Committee for the Study of the American Electorate, believes we are fostering an anti-political culture, in which young Americans are growing up in families who don't vote and are going to schools that don't emphasize citizenship and government. Gans also thinks that institutions such as the church are atrophying and the very ethos of government has been vilified through investigation and scandal. Given the political landscape, it is no wonder young Americans have given up trying to make a difference through voting.

Can political interest ever reach the same levels as civic engagement? The "Ventura Effect" in Minnesota provides two valuable lessons of basic common sense reforms that could raise the political interest of young people: 1) easier access to the voting booth and 2) expanding the two-party system.

Voting has been a very closed process in America. Every state should have same-day registration such as in Minnesota, where young voters turned out to elect Jesse Ventura. Sixteen percent of 332,500 voters registered on election day in Minnesota. Throughout our country's history, voter registration has been designed to keep people from voting and to disenfranchise women, African-Americans and, up until 1972 with the ratification of the 25th amendment, 18- to 20-year-olds.

Access to the voting booth could be easier if states would move from one election day to several election days and offer same-day registration to encourage more participation.

Moving beyond the two-party system could increase interest in politics. Young people are bombarded daily with many choices in the marketplace, why not in politics? As youth have become the most valuable marketing segment for corporate America, they are the least valued politically. It is a crime against the principles of our democracy that the system shuts out third parties. Youth want a choice beyond the limits of a two-party system. Judging from a sample of 1,500 voter registration forms returned to Rock the Vote, over 50 percent are registering independent at any given Rock the Vote event and upward of 80 percent of registrants decline to state a party affiliation.

Our two political parties are antiquated behemoths that don't appeal to younger generations. Most people, not just youth, don't think in dichotomous terms of left vs. right, black vs. white, liberal vs. conservative, but in more complex shades of beliefs and value systems which are not readily evident in Democrat and Republican agendas.

Ideally, all Americans should vote and volunteer. Even though volunteering offers immediate gratification, it is not a substitute for voting. Rock the Vote, an independent nonprofit organization founded in 1990 by members of the recording industry to protect freedom of expression, works to help young people recognize that politics matters and that young people can make a difference in both the civic and political lives of their community. Campaigns in 2000 need to communicate and bring youth into the political process. Politicians ignore this important constituency only at their peril.

Matt Moseley is the national field director for Rock the Vote in Los Angeles and is a former Denver resident.

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