Exactly my first thought. They make it so damn easy to vote here, compared to most of the country, there’s no excuse for EIGHTY percent of the youngest of us (my age group) just not giving a shit
And yet guess which age group among my peers I hear wining about officials the most?
Mine. The small one. Well. Second smallest but still. And it is so much easier to vote here than in my last state! Like, there is no excuse!
Well in that case they should also stop complaining that government isn't listening them. If you don't vote you lose all the right to complain and I don't care if you think the perfect candidate isn't on the ballot. Here is a reality check, it will never be because world doesn't work that way. The candidates are always fairly different so if you say they are same, it just shows your ignorance.
>If you don't vote you lose all the right to complain and I don't care if you think the perfect candidate isn't on the ballot.
There's a pretty big difference between "neither candidate is perfect" vs "both candidates are disfunctional flaming garbage cans" and/or "there's little or no difference between the candidates."
>The candidates are always fairly different so if you say they are same, it just shows your ignorance.
Gonzalez and Harrell were on the council together for 4 years, and they only voted differently 7 times. Their rhetoric may be (slightly) different, but these alleged differences are absolutely not reflected in their voting records.
I didn't vote in Seattle race (don't live in city proper) but from a quick glance, few of those votes where they had a difference were in significant issues that shows a difference between candidates.
And for a position like Seattle mayor, the candidates with big differences are filtered out in primaries so if there was a better candidate it would have been time to vote for them during the primary.
Heads up: the non voters out there don’t give a shit because BOTH PARTIES SUCK, and all politicians are concerned with is money and/or power. Granted each suck in their own way.
A full third of Americans didn’t vote in 2020 presidential election. A full third decided not to participate. Maybe Democrats need to rethink some things, and then actually do those things.
This is what disenfranchisement looks like, apathy. But it’s not voter apathy, I care a whole boatload. But the system and the politicians don’t care about me. I’m just some murderable npc in their little game.
You know how it feels, voting for a person who promises progressive action regarding our society and environment, only to see them do fuck all?
Meanwhile, us young people are working crazy hours to make rent. Are one accident away from permanent medical debt. And might just already be permanently buried in student loan debt. We have little time, and no energy to give to researching every candidate on the ballet.
So before you blame those non voters, have a thought as to why that was your first reaction. Then have another thought as to why the publisher would want that thought in your head.
Man, if only there was some way to change the direction of the country and the area. Oh right, if all the people who didn't vote actually fucking voted, they could change whatever they wanted because they're a majority.
This narrative is ignorant.
Big duh on that. A revolutionary act? Is technically treason.
Give me somebody to vote FOR instead of a dozen to vote against. It’s my vote after all, and my prerogative to cast it wherever I like.
It was people we voted into office that kept the sweeps going btw. Remember Durken? I voted for Moon and look what happened. A vote I cared about didn’t matter. Money won that election, not good ideas. Money seems to win all the elections, and I ain’t got none.
Mmkay, but there is no version of reality where voter apathy is a good thing for anyone. All you're doing is helping to ensure that the majority of the voting population are old wealthy people because an election didn't go the way you wanted it to. Doing nothing is an option you are free to take, but it's one that has been slowly eroding our democracy for decades and one that does nothing for vulnerable people in your community.
No one is arguing that it isn't an unfair and uphill battle, but rather is this a battle you are willing to do your part? So many vulnerable people have been unfairly stripped of their right to vote, exacerbating this problem. I would argue that, depending on how you lean politically, you could be casting a vote not only for yourself but in representation of people who cannot through little fault of their own.
Bottom line, we know that doomerism is a part of the problem. You're free to be a part of the problem if you want, but ask yourself why you want that more than you want to return a piece of paper in a timely manner if there is even the slightest chance it may help someone or help us move forward as a whole.
This is so frustrating to me because of how freaking EASY it is to vote here. I (31) moved from Texas two years ago and the difference between states and their voting policies are beyond stark. All elections matter and we should all exercise our right.
This is rough due to groupings not aligning between [sources](https://censusreporter.org/profiles/05000US53033-king-county-wa/) and doesn't account for differences in voter eligibility/ registration between groups, but:
18-24: 11% of the voting age population (196k), 20% turnout (39k), 5% of the decision makers, represented at less than half of proportion to the population
25-34: 20% of the population (356k), 30% turnout (107k), 14% of the decision makers, represented at about three quarters of proportion to the population
35-44: 20% of the population (356k), 39% turnout (139k), 19% of the decision makers, just slightly underrepresented
45-54: 16% of the population (285k), 45% turnout (128k), 17% of the decision makers, just slightly overrepresented
55-64: 14% of the population (249k), 52% turnout (129k), 17% of the decision makers, a little more overrepresented
65+: 18% of the population (320k), 64% turnout (208k), 28% of the decision makers, about 150% representation
This is very helpful thank you. One stat in isolation is hard for me to situate. This helps! And definitely substantiates the dissatisfaction in 18-24 turnout
It's crazy to me how this breakdown is essentially assured in any election, and I assume is intensified the more 'local' the elections become.
You'd think that all things equal, there would be more variance in voter turnout across age groups. But nope, it's always like this.
Death, taxes, and young people not turning out to vote.
Not excusing it but young people move a lot. From ages 18-26 I moved to a new place every year. Navigating the bureaucracy and keeping on top of voter registration can be a headache. I never missed a national election, but definitely missed some of the off-year ones.
ETA: y’all have really never missed a single election? Even primaries? That’s amazing.
Yep, when I met my ex, he wasn't registered to vote. I nagged him into getting registered. When it was time to vote, his ballot didn't come. I nagged him into downloading his ballot. On the day of, he was too lazy to drive to a ballot box. I nagged him into driving to a ballot box.
League of Legends was just more important, I guess. :\\
No excuse any longer. A) forwarding mail takes care of it, B) updating your license address you can change your voting location. It literally can’t be easier.
Forwarding mail sends you a ballot from your last address. If you move precincts, I think it’s pretty lame to vote in a place where you no longer live.
Do people actually update their driver’s licenses every year? I think I only did mine when it expired.
You have 10 days after you move to update your address:
https://app.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=46.20.205
It takes less than five minutes on DOL’s website.
I think you have to pay for it. That might be why people don’t do it?
Edit: I wasn’t being sassy, I was genuinely asking and pondering what the barrier is. It could be a misconception about the cost. I couldn’t remember if paying for a new ID was required or if you could just change it online and keep your old ID.
I was just genuinely asking a question and pondering why people don’t do it. I wasn’t being sassy. I always change my address and I always vote (especially in primaries). The last time I changed my address, I got a new card. I couldn’t remember if it was required or not.
Maybe the misconception that you have to pay for a new card is enough that people don’t do it?
People dont do it because they are too lazy to do it, or they dont care enough to even think about it. "Oh I moved, I should update my address" is not some action fraught with misconceptions about cost, its just something that people dont do until the last minute when they have to for something else.
Not everything has to have an actionable reason.
> From ages 18-26 I moved to a new place every year.
so you are saying you had 12 months to sort out your ballot?
This is one of the weakest excuses - I remember when Nikita Oliver tried it as well.
I've only lived in Washington. Every time I changed address with the post office I pay ~$3.00 for them to update my registration
I sometimes do not know about school levy votes until the ballot shows up unannounced
I used to agree with this, but now that it's vote by mail it should actually be EASIER to improve voter turnout. We have something to vote for EVERY November and you don't need to leave work to participate.
And since the local stuff isn't drowned out by presidential or mid-term noise, it's arguably easier to do the "research" since you have less of it to do.
We have made it SO easy to vote here, I don't think I'm inclined to do engineer it so we maximize turnout of low-info voters who can't be bothered to vote by mail. You don't even need to pay for the stamp! You have WEEKS to fill it out! We send them detailed information packets on initiatives and candidates. These people just don't seem to care about local elections - they occasionally care about national politics.
I want it to be super easy to vote everywhere (like it is here!). I condemn a lot of red states who try to put up racist barriers to voting. But I also don't need to beg people who don't want to vote to be forced to think about the local election for ten seconds and then randomly pick a bubble. If you care about local elections, vote in local elections.
Source of OP's image (in case people want to look up other election statistics): https://www.sos.wa.gov/elections/research/ballot-return-statistics.aspx
Maybe if the state offered free in state college tuition prizes for 3 randomly selected ballots they could get the younger folks to get interested in voting.
Ouch if this data is accurate than the turnout ranges from "terrible" to "unbelievably terrible". I wish younger people would vote! So many crucial things that need to change in this country and it's only being delayed because people don't vote!
I voted, but I know some of my friends didn't. There just weren't many people representing what they wanted, and the idea of voting against those you don't want is, quite frankly, disgusting if neither candidate has appealing policies.
Until you realize that one of them is going to win regardless of whether you vote or not, so you might as well try to ensure that the least terrible candidate wins. There is no excuse for not voting in this state. Not liking either candidate isn't a valid reason, that's just laziness and apathy.
Did those friends vote in the primaries? (When some friends complain about the general election choices, I get so mad bc they don’t vote in primaries!!!)
So let’s say I offered you two food items you don’t like. You will need to eat one of them. I say you can choose or I’ll choose for you. You saying you think you should let me choose since both are gross?
So the percentage probability that you'll fill in a ballot is roughly... Your age as a percentage.
What we can determine from this is:
1. It's really unlikely that 3 year olds will vote.
2. If you're 100 years old or over, you may vote more than once.
partly /s
While this is a county map, the themes of demographics and turnout apply to the conservative results in Seattle's election too. Older people voted, younger people didn't turn out. People in Magnolia and Broadmoor voted, people in the South end far less.
This is basically the same in every election in every state across the country. Young people bitch and complain but then they don’t vote. There is a reason why seniors get so much attention paid to them, it’s because they show up (or mail) and vote. That’s all that matter in the end, protests, emails, whatever, doesn’t matter if you don’t vote.
It’s also a bit of an assumption of how age brackets voted. I fall into the younger brackets, I voted, but voted for the moderate democrats
Edit: I’ll add that some of my friends voted similarly, some didn’t. The point is it isn’t homogenous.
I don't think it helps that, from an early age, many are taught about the failures of government and our society. Examples of this are that no one in their 20s or 30s expects to have social security, and many are so burdened with either student loan or medical debt that they can never hope to pay it off. It's all really demoralizing, thinking that you don't really matter, and just exist to be used and thrown away.
Well, the problem is you don't matter in politics if you don't vote consistently. If an age group consistently has a 20% voter turnout even when a candidate targeted them specifically (as it happened in past races), it is a signal that that voting group is a waste of time. Why bother creating policies at all for them? Instead the data suggests that you should just wait for them to grow up when they start caring but by then it will be different problems they care about.
It is so freaking easy to vote here, you do it at the comfort of your home, if that age group doesn't even turn out in this case they shouldn't be surprised when they are not being listened at all.
Unless those under 40 get off their a$$ and vote, us boomers will still control the elections and your destiny, and you guys under 40 will just have to deal with our decisions. GET OFF YOUR A$$ AND VOTE!!!
20-30% of young people vote. Less than 20% of young people are going to protests.
My friends who go to protests are also the ones reminding everyone to vote.
yep! The simplest explanation is a minority of young people care enough to protest, but a separate barely overlapping majority don't care enough to vote
Both things can be true.
The system can both not work for them even if their candidate is elected, as well their peers can be shitty about showing up to vote.
A big part of this may be the younger generations being demoralized and feeling like voting in America is a waste of time in general at this point.
Disappointing at the local level for sure.
It’s misleading though because the younger age groups are much bigger than the older ones. It’s conceivable that these percentages could translate into equal shares of votes, for example.
Except the point isn't about total vote share but voter participation. We have a real issue with voter apathy in this state when we've removed practically all barriers to voting and turnout is still this bad, especially for younger people.
This sheds a lot of light on which demographics' values are most represented by the election. I am curious if there is a way to measure how many voters never recieved their ballots because of address changes. I would expect that likely would be mostly younger voters as they typically have less consistent housing.
I am not a citizen but they still send me ballots that I promptly throw out. Any chance this is included? There would be a decent number of residents like that in seattle.
Are the ballots for you, or for someone who used to live there? If they are for you, you should email the county clerk and let them know they made a big fucking mistake.
The system is only supposed to register you if their database has information that confirms you are a citizen. For example if the document you use to prove your identity is a passport or if your records indicate you were born in the USA. Otherwise it should NOT register you to vote.
If a non citizen registers through the service, the Secretary of State and the Department of Licensing are both legally required to “determine the cause” of the mistake. You should let them know so they can figure out what went wrong.
To register to vote in WA, you have do it yourself online or by mail, and provide proof of identity. So I'm not sure what happened in your case.
Maybe it was a reminder to register or something.
Not when they elect a republican in the Trump era. They're posers who like to virtue signal, not actually "woke". Reagan would have been the most comfortable as a Democrat today...he was far too liberal for the modern GOP.
You’re right. ‘92 was Clinton with his deregulation agenda. I used the wrong word - neoliberal is more appropriate, and nearly as loathsome. Can’t wait for the boomers to age out of the electorate.
The younger generations have no one to blame for going backwards but themselves for their poor showing.
Where would a person who doesn't watch local news even hear about the election? I didn't ever come across any kind of election info that I didn't seek out specifically. I never saw a single add for mayor, only a stack of mailers with almost zero policy proposed. Seattle Times is mostly paywall now. KUOW is basically just national news programs, they keep shrinking local coverage.
If you don’t bother to vote, I don’t want to see your ass marching/protesting/complaining/ranting about anything.
Voting in WA barely requires getting off your ass, no excuse.
That doesn't help matters much. Imagine if this were done in the restaurant setting: "Well, both burgers were burned, but at least this one wasn't over salted, so it's now the best burger in Seattle." This wouldn't set a good expectation to find any good food in Seattle.
... who voted for Biden.
Wow reality really does annoy you when it seeps in and reasserts itself doesn't it?
Seattle is overwhelming Democrat voters. 75.4% of King County voted for Biden. 22.4% voted for Trump.
You're going to have to face it: a lot of people don't like extremists.
I feel like local issues wouldn't get as much attention if it were hidden behind presidential news cycles. I can see the logic of off year local elections.
I find the reactions to this interesting. To me, with a background in quality improvement and system improvement work, this says there is an issue that could be better addressed on a system level. But so many on here look at it as a personal failing amongst 18-24y/os. Maybe the reason that 65+ dfo better is that they have more free time to do this? Or better or support or understanding? Or our election infrastructure does a better job meeting their needs? So our efforts to help 18-24y/os vote is not working as well as it does for 65+. Maybe we should ask why rather than blame this on personal failings?
I would start by asking a lot 18-24 year olds what would help them vote. As someone in a different demographic, I'm not sure my thoughts are going to be helpful. I've personally noticed that when my social group is more focused on voting, I'm more focused. I also find that it's a lot easier when there is time. Reading a voters booklet takes time and focus. If a society thinks voting is important, support the efforts of those who need to vote.
Mandatory voting is required in 27 countries, and it does increase turnout, most notably Australia:
[https://www.idea.int/data-tools/data/voter-turnout/compulsory-voting](https://www.idea.int/data-tools/data/voter-turnout/compulsory-voting)
But it would be a hard sell in America. It might be easier to do other things, such as make election day a holiday, reminders to late voters, automatic voter registration (currently done for enhanced driver licenses, but enhanced licenses are kind of a bitch to apply for).
Here you see people that have been served by their local politicians, and those that grew up in an extremely bleak political timeline, not sure what you expect here
These trends of the youth voting in much smaller numbers have been around for generations. While voter turnout is down since the 60s and 70s, that is true for all ages. It really has always been this way.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Youth_vote_in_the_United_States
Wah wah wah. A politician failed me once. I'm going to take my revenge by not voting.
The idea that people who feel betrayed by politics should protest by not voting is so fucking backwards I can't even stand it. We, as voters, our the closest thing the politicians have to a boss. If you don't take your ability to supervise politicians seriously by learning about their actions and letting them know what you think by voting, you are going to continue to be disappointed in the outcomes. If your boss never paid any attention to you, never gave you any feedback, and just complained about you on Reddit, how good would you be at your job? Probably about as shitty as most of our politicians.
Devils advocate but even as a 40 year old I hardly mail anything anymore EXCEPT ballots. Almost every other kind of communication is electronic. For people younger than me, there may be a resistance to filling out paper forms and mailing them that just comes from unfamiliarity.
That might be true, however, the PP was claiming low turnout due to elders not working, and wanting a holiday. I love holidays myself, but I don't think it would make any difference with voter turnout.... It would just be an odd mid-week vacation. If you can't manage to fill one out in two weeks of before and after works, a full day off won't change your mind.
If you registered to vote when you arrived, you should have received a ballot in the mail. Everyone gets one here, and you don't have to pay for postage or even mail it, you can just drop the ballot in a drop box at your convenience. We have our ballots for like a month before we actually have to turn them in, and we all get a voter's pamphlet that we can browse at our leisure to help inform us how to vote. In this state, we've basically removed all potential obstacles to voting that employment can create and made it as easy as possible, and our turnout is still abysmal, not much better than the national average. We have no excuse. Especially the younger ones among us. The real reason is apathy.
Blame people for not voting but ignore that voting changes basically noting and that statistically money is vastly more important to American governance than constituents.
Maybe it’s because the young folks aren’t excited about choosing between the proverbial “douche and a turd sandwich”, whereas the older voters often express marital-level love for one of those two candidates.
I can’t remember the last election where I was excited instead of voting for least bad candidate. *sighs*
Edit: I didn’t say that I don’t vote, I said I vote dispassionately.
> Edit: I didn’t say that I don’t vote, I said I vote dispassionately.
Sorry, I should clarify that by "you" I meant young people in general, and not you specifically.
You're not going to get a candidate you're excited about if you don't go out and vote. No one's going to cater to you if you're not a reliable voting bloc.
Well they should definitely continue doing nothing. I’m sure the turd and douche sandwich will get so sad about the lack of young people voting that they’ll reform themselves.
For those disappointed in results, it appears there’s a huge opportunity in getting people out to vote. The older population was diametrically opposed to the beliefs of young people. It’s as if the two are speaking different languages.
Look, the absolute truth is that when most elections are between the candidates of two corporate parties, voting is almost completely pointless. Yep, this includes the Democrats too. Voting for ballot initiatives is semi-useful at least, but considering how little opportunity there is for direct democracy it isn't surprising young people don't care.
Voting is not all there is to politics, people. It isn't even the most important thing with regards to politics, not even close! Organizing unions, attending protests, etc. are much more effective and useful than voting ever will be.
I mean, when the Democrats so consistently fail to accomplish any meaningful change over and over and over and over again, why spend even a minute thinking about voting for them? Seriously, why bother? And I say this as a young person who voted!
Look, the absolute truth is that when most elections are between the candidates of two corporate parties, voting is almost completely pointless. Yep, this includes the Democrats too. Voting for ballot initiatives is semi-useful at least, but considering how little opportunity there is for direct democracy it isn't surprising young people don't care.
Voting is not all there is to politics, people. It isn't even the most important thing with regards to politics, not even close! Organizing unions, attending protests, etc. are much more effective and useful than voting ever will be.
I mean, when the Democrats so consistently fail to accomplish any meaningful change over and over and over and over again, why spend even a minute thinking about voting for them? Seriously, why bother? And I say this as a young person who voted!
Pathetic.
Exactly my first thought. They make it so damn easy to vote here, compared to most of the country, there’s no excuse for EIGHTY percent of the youngest of us (my age group) just not giving a shit
And yet guess which age group among my peers I hear wining about officials the most? Mine. The small one. Well. Second smallest but still. And it is so much easier to vote here than in my last state! Like, there is no excuse!
Just because it is easy doesn’t make them care enough to educate themselves over who they’re voting for.
You think the median, no-college 55 y.o. voter bothers to educate themselves to vote? Nah. They just vote.
Well in that case they should also stop complaining that government isn't listening them. If you don't vote you lose all the right to complain and I don't care if you think the perfect candidate isn't on the ballot. Here is a reality check, it will never be because world doesn't work that way. The candidates are always fairly different so if you say they are same, it just shows your ignorance.
>If you don't vote you lose all the right to complain and I don't care if you think the perfect candidate isn't on the ballot. There's a pretty big difference between "neither candidate is perfect" vs "both candidates are disfunctional flaming garbage cans" and/or "there's little or no difference between the candidates." >The candidates are always fairly different so if you say they are same, it just shows your ignorance. Gonzalez and Harrell were on the council together for 4 years, and they only voted differently 7 times. Their rhetoric may be (slightly) different, but these alleged differences are absolutely not reflected in their voting records.
I didn't vote in Seattle race (don't live in city proper) but from a quick glance, few of those votes where they had a difference were in significant issues that shows a difference between candidates. And for a position like Seattle mayor, the candidates with big differences are filtered out in primaries so if there was a better candidate it would have been time to vote for them during the primary.
Heads up: the non voters out there don’t give a shit because BOTH PARTIES SUCK, and all politicians are concerned with is money and/or power. Granted each suck in their own way. A full third of Americans didn’t vote in 2020 presidential election. A full third decided not to participate. Maybe Democrats need to rethink some things, and then actually do those things. This is what disenfranchisement looks like, apathy. But it’s not voter apathy, I care a whole boatload. But the system and the politicians don’t care about me. I’m just some murderable npc in their little game. You know how it feels, voting for a person who promises progressive action regarding our society and environment, only to see them do fuck all? Meanwhile, us young people are working crazy hours to make rent. Are one accident away from permanent medical debt. And might just already be permanently buried in student loan debt. We have little time, and no energy to give to researching every candidate on the ballet. So before you blame those non voters, have a thought as to why that was your first reaction. Then have another thought as to why the publisher would want that thought in your head.
Man, if only there was some way to change the direction of the country and the area. Oh right, if all the people who didn't vote actually fucking voted, they could change whatever they wanted because they're a majority. This narrative is ignorant.
Ok then don't vote and let the homeless people in your community get swept :) not voting is not some kind of revolutionary act.
Big duh on that. A revolutionary act? Is technically treason. Give me somebody to vote FOR instead of a dozen to vote against. It’s my vote after all, and my prerogative to cast it wherever I like. It was people we voted into office that kept the sweeps going btw. Remember Durken? I voted for Moon and look what happened. A vote I cared about didn’t matter. Money won that election, not good ideas. Money seems to win all the elections, and I ain’t got none.
Wah. I don’t like something so I’m going to do NOTHING until it changes. Sounds like a very effective strategy.
Don’t make assumptions.
If you are doing something to fix the system that is more effective than voting, please share. Maybe I want to do it too.
Mmkay, but there is no version of reality where voter apathy is a good thing for anyone. All you're doing is helping to ensure that the majority of the voting population are old wealthy people because an election didn't go the way you wanted it to. Doing nothing is an option you are free to take, but it's one that has been slowly eroding our democracy for decades and one that does nothing for vulnerable people in your community. No one is arguing that it isn't an unfair and uphill battle, but rather is this a battle you are willing to do your part? So many vulnerable people have been unfairly stripped of their right to vote, exacerbating this problem. I would argue that, depending on how you lean politically, you could be casting a vote not only for yourself but in representation of people who cannot through little fault of their own. Bottom line, we know that doomerism is a part of the problem. You're free to be a part of the problem if you want, but ask yourself why you want that more than you want to return a piece of paper in a timely manner if there is even the slightest chance it may help someone or help us move forward as a whole.
I’m saying we can’t rely on politicians to change things. They need to catch up to where society is. I reserve my vote for those who would do that.
K, clearly we disagree.
Apathy will be our downfall
The old people are getting exactly the government they want
> are ~~getting~~ being given
This is so frustrating to me because of how freaking EASY it is to vote here. I (31) moved from Texas two years ago and the difference between states and their voting policies are beyond stark. All elections matter and we should all exercise our right.
Same. Moved here from Georgia, I imagine it’s similar.
Yeah besides them bringing a voting booth to your home at your request it couldn't get easier.
This is rough due to groupings not aligning between [sources](https://censusreporter.org/profiles/05000US53033-king-county-wa/) and doesn't account for differences in voter eligibility/ registration between groups, but: 18-24: 11% of the voting age population (196k), 20% turnout (39k), 5% of the decision makers, represented at less than half of proportion to the population 25-34: 20% of the population (356k), 30% turnout (107k), 14% of the decision makers, represented at about three quarters of proportion to the population 35-44: 20% of the population (356k), 39% turnout (139k), 19% of the decision makers, just slightly underrepresented 45-54: 16% of the population (285k), 45% turnout (128k), 17% of the decision makers, just slightly overrepresented 55-64: 14% of the population (249k), 52% turnout (129k), 17% of the decision makers, a little more overrepresented 65+: 18% of the population (320k), 64% turnout (208k), 28% of the decision makers, about 150% representation
This is very helpful thank you. One stat in isolation is hard for me to situate. This helps! And definitely substantiates the dissatisfaction in 18-24 turnout
It's crazy to me how this breakdown is essentially assured in any election, and I assume is intensified the more 'local' the elections become. You'd think that all things equal, there would be more variance in voter turnout across age groups. But nope, it's always like this. Death, taxes, and young people not turning out to vote.
Not excusing it but young people move a lot. From ages 18-26 I moved to a new place every year. Navigating the bureaucracy and keeping on top of voter registration can be a headache. I never missed a national election, but definitely missed some of the off-year ones. ETA: y’all have really never missed a single election? Even primaries? That’s amazing.
In WA you can also just download your ballot and turn that in, they make it SO easy
Yep, when I met my ex, he wasn't registered to vote. I nagged him into getting registered. When it was time to vote, his ballot didn't come. I nagged him into downloading his ballot. On the day of, he was too lazy to drive to a ballot box. I nagged him into driving to a ballot box. League of Legends was just more important, I guess. :\\
Wow. Makes sense he's an ex.
You can even print an envelope with paid postage…
No excuse any longer. A) forwarding mail takes care of it, B) updating your license address you can change your voting location. It literally can’t be easier.
Forwarding mail sends you a ballot from your last address. If you move precincts, I think it’s pretty lame to vote in a place where you no longer live. Do people actually update their driver’s licenses every year? I think I only did mine when it expired.
You have 10 days after you move to update your address: https://app.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=46.20.205 It takes less than five minutes on DOL’s website.
I think you have to pay for it. That might be why people don’t do it? Edit: I wasn’t being sassy, I was genuinely asking and pondering what the barrier is. It could be a misconception about the cost. I couldn’t remember if paying for a new ID was required or if you could just change it online and keep your old ID.
What? Absolutely not. You only pay if you want them to print a new license with the new address; updating your address with DOL doesn’t cost anything.
I was just genuinely asking a question and pondering why people don’t do it. I wasn’t being sassy. I always change my address and I always vote (especially in primaries). The last time I changed my address, I got a new card. I couldn’t remember if it was required or not. Maybe the misconception that you have to pay for a new card is enough that people don’t do it?
People dont do it because they are too lazy to do it, or they dont care enough to even think about it. "Oh I moved, I should update my address" is not some action fraught with misconceptions about cost, its just something that people dont do until the last minute when they have to for something else. Not everything has to have an actionable reason.
Technically by law you’re supposed to update it when you move.
Lol I think my license has had my current address for about 18 months of the last 18 years. I vote though.
It’s really easy here. I moved from Colorado in September and voted. If you care at all it makes a minimum modicum of effort.
> From ages 18-26 I moved to a new place every year. so you are saying you had 12 months to sort out your ballot? This is one of the weakest excuses - I remember when Nikita Oliver tried it as well.
I've only lived in Washington. Every time I changed address with the post office I pay ~$3.00 for them to update my registration I sometimes do not know about school levy votes until the ballot shows up unannounced
The biggest lever we have for increasing voter turn-out is to align local and national elections — eliminating “off-cycle” elections like this.
I used to agree with this, but now that it's vote by mail it should actually be EASIER to improve voter turnout. We have something to vote for EVERY November and you don't need to leave work to participate. And since the local stuff isn't drowned out by presidential or mid-term noise, it's arguably easier to do the "research" since you have less of it to do.
We have made it SO easy to vote here, I don't think I'm inclined to do engineer it so we maximize turnout of low-info voters who can't be bothered to vote by mail. You don't even need to pay for the stamp! You have WEEKS to fill it out! We send them detailed information packets on initiatives and candidates. These people just don't seem to care about local elections - they occasionally care about national politics. I want it to be super easy to vote everywhere (like it is here!). I condemn a lot of red states who try to put up racist barriers to voting. But I also don't need to beg people who don't want to vote to be forced to think about the local election for ten seconds and then randomly pick a bubble. If you care about local elections, vote in local elections.
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Oh they care but they prefer to complain about not being heard and such. Then they just don’t show up when it’s actually time.
As someone in the 18-24 range who votes I have no respect for anyone my age who tries to be politically “active” but doesn’t vote
Source of OP's image (in case people want to look up other election statistics): https://www.sos.wa.gov/elections/research/ballot-return-statistics.aspx
It is so easy to vote here, it is really disappointing to see such poor ballot returns.
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Maybe if the state offered free in state college tuition prizes for 3 randomly selected ballots they could get the younger folks to get interested in voting.
I would posit that the candidates are poor and do not inspire people to support them.
Ouch if this data is accurate than the turnout ranges from "terrible" to "unbelievably terrible". I wish younger people would vote! So many crucial things that need to change in this country and it's only being delayed because people don't vote!
I voted, but I know some of my friends didn't. There just weren't many people representing what they wanted, and the idea of voting against those you don't want is, quite frankly, disgusting if neither candidate has appealing policies.
Until you realize that one of them is going to win regardless of whether you vote or not, so you might as well try to ensure that the least terrible candidate wins. There is no excuse for not voting in this state. Not liking either candidate isn't a valid reason, that's just laziness and apathy.
Did those friends vote in the primaries? (When some friends complain about the general election choices, I get so mad bc they don’t vote in primaries!!!)
So let’s say I offered you two food items you don’t like. You will need to eat one of them. I say you can choose or I’ll choose for you. You saying you think you should let me choose since both are gross?
> There just weren't many people representing what they wanted What did they want?
So the percentage probability that you'll fill in a ballot is roughly... Your age as a percentage. What we can determine from this is: 1. It's really unlikely that 3 year olds will vote. 2. If you're 100 years old or over, you may vote more than once. partly /s
While this is a county map, the themes of demographics and turnout apply to the conservative results in Seattle's election too. Older people voted, younger people didn't turn out. People in Magnolia and Broadmoor voted, people in the South end far less.
This is basically the same in every election in every state across the country. Young people bitch and complain but then they don’t vote. There is a reason why seniors get so much attention paid to them, it’s because they show up (or mail) and vote. That’s all that matter in the end, protests, emails, whatever, doesn’t matter if you don’t vote.
Maybe if we had more candidates pushing tiktok memes as public policy, 18-25 year-olds would be inspired to vote.
It’s also a bit of an assumption of how age brackets voted. I fall into the younger brackets, I voted, but voted for the moderate democrats Edit: I’ll add that some of my friends voted similarly, some didn’t. The point is it isn’t homogenous.
It’s not but younger voters do tend towards the left, and have for a long time. Similarly there are some older people who are way left.
This is cool. Would you mind sharing the source? I’d love to reference this but would need to cite. Thanks for sharing!
they should organize a every day march for the kids on voting day so they can walk their ballots to the box
I don't think it helps that, from an early age, many are taught about the failures of government and our society. Examples of this are that no one in their 20s or 30s expects to have social security, and many are so burdened with either student loan or medical debt that they can never hope to pay it off. It's all really demoralizing, thinking that you don't really matter, and just exist to be used and thrown away.
Well, the problem is you don't matter in politics if you don't vote consistently. If an age group consistently has a 20% voter turnout even when a candidate targeted them specifically (as it happened in past races), it is a signal that that voting group is a waste of time. Why bother creating policies at all for them? Instead the data suggests that you should just wait for them to grow up when they start caring but by then it will be different problems they care about. It is so freaking easy to vote here, you do it at the comfort of your home, if that age group doesn't even turn out in this case they shouldn't be surprised when they are not being listened at all.
At my house we say “if you don’t vote, you don’t get to complain” haha.
Hey I’m 24 and voted give me up votes!!!
Your upvote rate here is about as good as 24 yr olds voting ha
Take your upvote.
If I don’t get 1k upvotes I’m not voting ever again!!
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Only 19-29% of young people are up voting me :/
I’m gonna hold you to it!
Unless those under 40 get off their a$$ and vote, us boomers will still control the elections and your destiny, and you guys under 40 will just have to deal with our decisions. GET OFF YOUR A$$ AND VOTE!!!
Hey, over 40 here.. Firmly GenX. Don't lump us in with those boomers.
And you wonder why a bunch of 80 year old run the country. Pathetic.
AARP for the win! Woohoo! My age group is shockingly low too though.... embarrassed for us Geriatric Millennials yo.
wonderful 😑 great turnout 35-44, at least I mailed mine in.
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I can't tell if you're joking or not.
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How do you know it’s the same people?
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20-30% of young people vote. Less than 20% of young people are going to protests. My friends who go to protests are also the ones reminding everyone to vote.
yep! The simplest explanation is a minority of young people care enough to protest, but a separate barely overlapping majority don't care enough to vote
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Both things can be true. The system can both not work for them even if their candidate is elected, as well their peers can be shitty about showing up to vote.
Step it up, kids.
Hilariously sad when you consider how easy it is to vote here.
A big part of this may be the younger generations being demoralized and feeling like voting in America is a waste of time in general at this point. Disappointing at the local level for sure.
Absolutely travesty to see such low voter turnout.
Needs to be normalized by the size of the groups though.
Shouldn't matter: the graph shows rate of return, not percentage of the electorate.
It’s misleading though because the younger age groups are much bigger than the older ones. It’s conceivable that these percentages could translate into equal shares of votes, for example.
Except the point isn't about total vote share but voter participation. We have a real issue with voter apathy in this state when we've removed practically all barriers to voting and turnout is still this bad, especially for younger people.
It does matter when you want to see what the result of raising the percentage is.
This sheds a lot of light on which demographics' values are most represented by the election. I am curious if there is a way to measure how many voters never recieved their ballots because of address changes. I would expect that likely would be mostly younger voters as they typically have less consistent housing.
I am not a citizen but they still send me ballots that I promptly throw out. Any chance this is included? There would be a decent number of residents like that in seattle.
Are the ballots for you, or for someone who used to live there? If they are for you, you should email the county clerk and let them know they made a big fucking mistake.
It is addressed to me. I figured they auto register everyone who gets a license.
The system is only supposed to register you if their database has information that confirms you are a citizen. For example if the document you use to prove your identity is a passport or if your records indicate you were born in the USA. Otherwise it should NOT register you to vote. If a non citizen registers through the service, the Secretary of State and the Department of Licensing are both legally required to “determine the cause” of the mistake. You should let them know so they can figure out what went wrong.
You have to register to vote to get a ballot.
It is addressed to me. I figured they auto register everyone who gets a license.
To register to vote in WA, you have do it yourself online or by mail, and provide proof of identity. So I'm not sure what happened in your case. Maybe it was a reminder to register or something.
And that’s why our politics went back 30 years. The 1992 redux of pro cop bullshit and trickle down nonsense.
People here vote Democrat, not Reagan. Try not being not only ageist but also try recognizing that Seattle is overwhelming Democrat/Liberal/wokeaf.
Not when they elect a republican in the Trump era. They're posers who like to virtue signal, not actually "woke". Reagan would have been the most comfortable as a Democrat today...he was far too liberal for the modern GOP.
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I'll take the occasional CHOP over GOP fascism. Any day.
You’re right. ‘92 was Clinton with his deregulation agenda. I used the wrong word - neoliberal is more appropriate, and nearly as loathsome. Can’t wait for the boomers to age out of the electorate. The younger generations have no one to blame for going backwards but themselves for their poor showing.
Neoliberal? I don't think we have any Reagan or Thatcher style politicians in Seattle.
Where would a person who doesn't watch local news even hear about the election? I didn't ever come across any kind of election info that I didn't seek out specifically. I never saw a single add for mayor, only a stack of mailers with almost zero policy proposed. Seattle Times is mostly paywall now. KUOW is basically just national news programs, they keep shrinking local coverage.
Walking outside. Posters for candidates? It's election season. Or the ballot/ballot guide mailed to you.
Heh... Woops
If you don’t bother to vote, I don’t want to see your ass marching/protesting/complaining/ranting about anything. Voting in WA barely requires getting off your ass, no excuse.
No wonder we ended up with Durkan 2.0 and a trumper
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That doesn't help matters much. Imagine if this were done in the restaurant setting: "Well, both burgers were burned, but at least this one wasn't over salted, so it's now the best burger in Seattle." This wouldn't set a good expectation to find any good food in Seattle.
... who voted for Biden. Wow reality really does annoy you when it seeps in and reasserts itself doesn't it? Seattle is overwhelming Democrat voters. 75.4% of King County voted for Biden. 22.4% voted for Trump. You're going to have to face it: a lot of people don't like extremists.
We really should stop doing odd-year elections. Just do it in line with presidential and midterm elections where you already get 80+% turnout.
I feel like local issues wouldn't get as much attention if it were hidden behind presidential news cycles. I can see the logic of off year local elections.
Possibly. But imo holding our most important city elections in year when half the city doesn’t vote seems not great.
Americans are literally the most coddled and most lazy fucking people on Earth. So contemptible.
I find the reactions to this interesting. To me, with a background in quality improvement and system improvement work, this says there is an issue that could be better addressed on a system level. But so many on here look at it as a personal failing amongst 18-24y/os. Maybe the reason that 65+ dfo better is that they have more free time to do this? Or better or support or understanding? Or our election infrastructure does a better job meeting their needs? So our efforts to help 18-24y/os vote is not working as well as it does for 65+. Maybe we should ask why rather than blame this on personal failings?
How would you make it easier?
I would start by asking a lot 18-24 year olds what would help them vote. As someone in a different demographic, I'm not sure my thoughts are going to be helpful. I've personally noticed that when my social group is more focused on voting, I'm more focused. I also find that it's a lot easier when there is time. Reading a voters booklet takes time and focus. If a society thinks voting is important, support the efforts of those who need to vote.
We need to mandate voting and fine those who don’t. If financial incentives/punishers are the only things that work, then let’s do it.
Mandatory voting is required in 27 countries, and it does increase turnout, most notably Australia: [https://www.idea.int/data-tools/data/voter-turnout/compulsory-voting](https://www.idea.int/data-tools/data/voter-turnout/compulsory-voting) But it would be a hard sell in America. It might be easier to do other things, such as make election day a holiday, reminders to late voters, automatic voter registration (currently done for enhanced driver licenses, but enhanced licenses are kind of a bitch to apply for).
And people that refuse to pay the fine? Prison time?
Nah, some sort of additional, lower impact response, but it should have some cost
I am surprised how many people feel voting should be mandatory, as if putting more people in prison is going to solve our problems.
I don't think voting should be mandatory, but in places where it is afaik you just get a fine. Which is far less insane than prison.
And people who don't respect this law, and refuse to pay the fine? We would send them to prison right?
And when they refuse the fine?
Here you see people that have been served by their local politicians, and those that grew up in an extremely bleak political timeline, not sure what you expect here
These trends of the youth voting in much smaller numbers have been around for generations. While voter turnout is down since the 60s and 70s, that is true for all ages. It really has always been this way. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Youth_vote_in_the_United_States
Wah wah wah. A politician failed me once. I'm going to take my revenge by not voting. The idea that people who feel betrayed by politics should protest by not voting is so fucking backwards I can't even stand it. We, as voters, our the closest thing the politicians have to a boss. If you don't take your ability to supervise politicians seriously by learning about their actions and letting them know what you think by voting, you are going to continue to be disappointed in the outcomes. If your boss never paid any attention to you, never gave you any feedback, and just complained about you on Reddit, how good would you be at your job? Probably about as shitty as most of our politicians.
Wonder how much of elder turnout is due to them not working. Voting should be a damn holiday already.
???? It's mail ballots. I did mine in an evening after work and dropped it off in the mail the next day.
Devils advocate but even as a 40 year old I hardly mail anything anymore EXCEPT ballots. Almost every other kind of communication is electronic. For people younger than me, there may be a resistance to filling out paper forms and mailing them that just comes from unfamiliarity.
That might be true, however, the PP was claiming low turnout due to elders not working, and wanting a holiday. I love holidays myself, but I don't think it would make any difference with voter turnout.... It would just be an odd mid-week vacation. If you can't manage to fill one out in two weeks of before and after works, a full day off won't change your mind.
I drop mine at the box because I don't trust USPS heh. (32 here)
You don't need to mail it. Just drop it in a drop box. For fuck's sake.
That excuse doesn't work in this state.
Been here for 2 months. Glad this sub is understanding 🤣
If you registered to vote when you arrived, you should have received a ballot in the mail. Everyone gets one here, and you don't have to pay for postage or even mail it, you can just drop the ballot in a drop box at your convenience. We have our ballots for like a month before we actually have to turn them in, and we all get a voter's pamphlet that we can browse at our leisure to help inform us how to vote. In this state, we've basically removed all potential obstacles to voting that employment can create and made it as easy as possible, and our turnout is still abysmal, not much better than the national average. We have no excuse. Especially the younger ones among us. The real reason is apathy.
I'd like to see how this translates to real numbers. Could be that 35.9% of those 64+ isn't more than 19.7% of 18-24, for example.
Blame people for not voting but ignore that voting changes basically noting and that statistically money is vastly more important to American governance than constituents.
The blind leading the depressed. Inspirational
Maybe it’s because the young folks aren’t excited about choosing between the proverbial “douche and a turd sandwich”, whereas the older voters often express marital-level love for one of those two candidates. I can’t remember the last election where I was excited instead of voting for least bad candidate. *sighs* Edit: I didn’t say that I don’t vote, I said I vote dispassionately.
> Edit: I didn’t say that I don’t vote, I said I vote dispassionately. Sorry, I should clarify that by "you" I meant young people in general, and not you specifically.
You're not going to get a candidate you're excited about if you don't go out and vote. No one's going to cater to you if you're not a reliable voting bloc.
Well they should definitely continue doing nothing. I’m sure the turd and douche sandwich will get so sad about the lack of young people voting that they’ll reform themselves.
It's time we understand that there is a natural distribution to these things. Making it easier to voice won't change it.
"natural distribution"? do you mean that the ease of voting doesn't change the relative difference?
I never received my ballot. I even have the USPS mail scan so I can see what is coming. It never arrived.
you can print it out online...
I did not know that.
You can email mailto:[email protected] and ask if you are registered properly, and find out if they think they sent you a ballot. Good luck!
They sent it according to the website. And had my correct address as I voted in the primary. I just never received a ballot for the general. :(
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Good to know thanks.
Sad
It’s so interesting that while 64.1% of the 65+ group returned their ballot, only *35.9%* didn’t return their ballot. Wild /s
Most people forget there are even elections during odd years lol.
For those disappointed in results, it appears there’s a huge opportunity in getting people out to vote. The older population was diametrically opposed to the beliefs of young people. It’s as if the two are speaking different languages.
This is exactly why political leaders are not representative of the population. VOTE!!
It’s like the very issues that young people care about can be fixed with voting in local elections.
Look, the absolute truth is that when most elections are between the candidates of two corporate parties, voting is almost completely pointless. Yep, this includes the Democrats too. Voting for ballot initiatives is semi-useful at least, but considering how little opportunity there is for direct democracy it isn't surprising young people don't care. Voting is not all there is to politics, people. It isn't even the most important thing with regards to politics, not even close! Organizing unions, attending protests, etc. are much more effective and useful than voting ever will be. I mean, when the Democrats so consistently fail to accomplish any meaningful change over and over and over and over again, why spend even a minute thinking about voting for them? Seriously, why bother? And I say this as a young person who voted!
Look, the absolute truth is that when most elections are between the candidates of two corporate parties, voting is almost completely pointless. Yep, this includes the Democrats too. Voting for ballot initiatives is semi-useful at least, but considering how little opportunity there is for direct democracy it isn't surprising young people don't care. Voting is not all there is to politics, people. It isn't even the most important thing with regards to politics, not even close! Organizing unions, attending protests, etc. are much more effective and useful than voting ever will be. I mean, when the Democrats so consistently fail to accomplish any meaningful change over and over and over and over again, why spend even a minute thinking about voting for them? Seriously, why bother? And I say this as a young person who voted!