In November 2024, the voting process will begin to elect a new president of the United States into office. This is a very important and historic time in America’s history, with the outcome of either candidate being elected holding some novelty. With all of the bias and misinformation that is spread during these times, it is very important that all voters, and in particular new voters, are given credible information to make their very important decision.
Why should newly eligible voters participate at all? One reason why it is important for young people to vote is because it gives us an opportunity to impact where our tax dollars go. When the government takes $200 out of your paycheck every two weeks, you should want to know where that money is going. All voting affects the taxes that are put on residents, from the local city level to the national voting level.
“By helping to elect city council members, county commissioners, governors, state legislators, all the way to members of Congress and the President, your vote chooses how your tax dollars are allocated.” With voting, you get to choose how you like your tax dollars to be spent. You get to choose whether you like a decrease in taxes that comes at the cost of lower funding for social programs, or the inverse with more money for social programs that comes at the cost of higher taxes. These are important decisions that affect your taxes that can only be impacted by voting.
Another important reason to vote is that you can change the statistics of young people not voting, with only “10% of people ages 18-29” making up the voting total. This age group makes up 27% percent of the population of eligible voters but only 10% percent of the votes. This is important to change because this age group is being affected by laws that they are not voting on, and they are choosing to not have a say in the voting process.
Now that there are reasons for young people to vote, how should they research their chosen candidates? Young voters should look to avoid biased information and news outlets. They can do this by searching for biased charts that label a news outlet political leaning and how influenced they are by outside sources. Once a young voter has done this, they should find out where they lean politically if they do not already know. They can achieve this by doing many different political ideology surveys online. Once a voter has found their own political ideology, they should do research on whether either of the candidates’ policies support the ideas they value. Once they find a candidate that supports their values, they should make the important decision of choosing to vote for or not vote for that candidate.
This November, I encourage every eligible voter in the 18-29 year old demographic to make a well-researched and thought-out decision to vote for their chosen candidate.
