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The United States has fought wars to defend and spread democracy, yet today it faces a

new controversy––it has the lowest voter turnout of any democratic nation. Why is this the case,

and is there anything young adults could do to increase the numbers for the future? These were

the questions I faced when declaring my social issue of political apathy for my QUEST project,

which I selected because of my own interest in government and politics. I completed an

experience project that included interviews with professionals and analysis of mock legislation

written by high school students to better understand the current state of the conflict. I created a

service project that I felt would best remedy my cause, working for a new candidate for the

House of Representatives in the United States Congress because new candidates lack the

financial advantages that incumbents of office hold and are often forced to opt towards

mobilizing citizens classified as unlikely to vote. I also performed extensive research through

and through again to better explore and search for an answer to my essential question: what are

the underlying factors of a lack of political participation in young adults, and how does low voter

turnout undermine the American system of democracy?

I will begin my answer by first exploring the American system of representative

democracy itself, and why a lack of political involvement can be detrimental to its function. The

government system in the United States strives to best represent and protect the interests of its

people. It does this by splitting its central government into three branches with an elaborate

system of checks and balances to prevent a select group of individuals sitting on Capitol Hill

from gaining too much power. In preventing the tyranny of an over-powerful central

government, the United States reserves the rest of the power to the people, who make their

voices and opinions heard through petitioning, assembling and most importantly, voting. It

becomes extremely evident that if citizens do not vote, they undermine the entire purpose of a

representative democracy. The article “The Dangers of Political Apathy” originally published in

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The Spectator in 1891 explains that political apathy is dangerous because it allows a single

candidate or party to control certain areas and stops citizens from voting on certain issues, which

screws with the representation of the citizens’ ideas in government (“The Dangers of Political

Apathy”). Yes, it is impossible to expect each and every citizen to cast a vote on Election Day,

and so a representative democracy can only hope for is that the votes cast and not cast are

proportional in interests to the actual population. That however, is exactly where the problem in

the United States lies. In a newspaper article “Fighting Turnout Burnout,” Richard Freeman

explains, “if voting were unrelated to age, income, education, and other measures of

socioeconomic status, low turnout would not affect how representative our democracy is. But

advantaged groups in America vote in large numbers while those from more disadvantaged

groups don't. This is truer today than ever before” (Freeman). Through this continuous trend, the

conflict has only been embedded deeper into American society as entire groups of individuals

become classified as unlikely to vote. The groups classified as unlikely to vote include the less

educated, the immigrants, the citizens of lower socioeconomic class, and unfortunately, young

adults aged 18-24. When I spoke with Dr. Joseph Kahne of Mills College on the issue, he told

me “politics, especially the stuff broadcasted on the news, simply isn’t targeted toward young

adults anymore” (Kahne 2014). Politicians and the media stop trying to reach out to these

individuals, and representative altogether fails to represent entire groups of Americans.

One of the largest fields to explore contributing to a lack of political involvement in

young adults is the educational aspect. My consultant Jeff Harris, CEO of the Junior Statesmen

of America, told me in a personal interview, “we make it difficult for kids to like politics because

of the way our education system is set up” (Harris 2014). He went on to explain that in school,

students are taught about representative democracy in the United States and how each and

everyone of our voices is important, but are promptly disenfranchised in every way possible by

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the schools in the form of detentions from speaking out or their inability to incite genuine change

through their words and actions. It simply is not the ideal environment for developing and

nurturing interests in government and politics and encouraging political involvement. He also

noted the direct correlation between education and voter turnout. According to a survey

conducted by the Pew Research Center in 2012, fifty-five percent of nonvoters do not have a

college education ("Nonvoters: Who They Are, What They Think"). Likewise, according to the

Center of Civic Education, thirty-one out of fifty states do not require civic education for high

school students (Branson).  This lack of civic education was definitely a notable while I was

analyzing mock legislation written by high school students for my experience project. I found

that students were incapable of foreshadowing the negative effects of imposing extra taxes on

citizens who did not vote as well as incapable of demonstrating a basic knowledge of the three

branches of government. These observations defining a lack of civic education are concerning, as

they make evident the inability of young adults to understand the negative effects of their own

political apathy.

The United States government does little to remedy the situation. Other sovereign

democratic bodies like Puerto Rico make election days national holidays, thereby encouraging

citizens to vote by creating a nationalistic pride associated with it, while election days in the

United States take place on workdays, where Americans have to wait in long lines before and

during work hours. That is why when surveyed, a large portion of Americans stated that they

were too busy, either with work or with college. But specifically focused towards young adults, a

survey conducted by the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and

Engagement reveals that, “college students are much more likely to cite being out of town or

away from home as the reason they didn’t vote. That make sense: they tend to live away” (“Why

Young People Don’t Vote”). College students often cannot vote because of federal laws

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requiring them to register to vote under their home address with their parents. This,

unfortunately, was exactly what I observed in the service portion of my QUEST project, as I was

phone banking for Ro Khanna’s campaign for Congress. Many of the phone numbers on my

phone bank list belonged to individuals aged 18-24, and I found almost every one of their parents

answering the phone and telling me their son or daughter was away at college, either out of state

or far enough away in-state that her or she would be unable to return home for on election day.

This was particularly frustrating to me, because young adults are already classified as unlikely to

vote. Federal laws only served to alienate political campaigns run by incumbents of office, and

undermined a large factor in why I created my service plan the way I chose to.

Due to the misrepresentation stemming from poor voter turnout that has already been

occurred in the United States, many citizens have developed a general feeling of frustration in

our nation’s leaders. According to an article on USATODAY.com, Curtis Gans feels that

millions of voters refrained from voting in the 2012 re-election of Obama because of “a lot of

lack of trust in our leaders, a lack of positive feelings about political institutions, a lack of quality

education for large segments of the public, a lack of civic education, the fragmenting effects of

waves of communications technology, the cynicism of the coverage of politics” (Page). Citizens

refrain from voting, they are misrepresented in their communities and in Congress, they grow

frustrated and continue to refrain from voting. It is a cycle that leads into itself.

Throughout my research, experience and service, I was able to explore, understand and

come to a conclusion about my social issue of political apathy. My essential question, what are

the underlying factors behind a lack of political involvement in young adults, and how does low

voter turnout undermine the American system of democracy, is a multifaceted question with a

multifaceted answer.

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I’ll begin the conclusion to my essential question by addressing its first portion: the

underlying factors behind a lack of political involvement in young adults. There are multiple

reasons, some that individuals have no control over, such as the educational system in which

young adults transition out of. Though there are government and history classes, which

constantly remind us of our right and our duty of voting, they all, for the most part, fail to capture

the interest of students transitioning into young adults and fail to show us of why voting is such a

fundamental right. Thirty-one out of fifty states do not require civic education for high school

students. This lack of civic education and lack of education on current events as well as

government policy bars young adults from understanding the nature of the problems in our local

and national governments and bars us from trying to problem solve and become involved in

order to make a difference. However, most of the underlying factors behind a lack of political

involvement in young adults can and should be remedied through simply casting a vote. It is

because of their own frustration with the current state of government and politics that they do not

get involved. The media becomes aware of this disinterest and stops broadcasting trying to

broadcast programs targeted towards capturing the attention and interests of young adults.

This lack of involvement in government and politics and poor voter turnout directly

undermines the definition of representative democracy that we have in the United States. Most

voters are now of a similar age group, similar race and similar socio-economic status, which is

fails to represent the needs of all other citizens. Research foundations take hold of these

statistics, release them to the media, and ultimately drive broadcasted politics and campaigns to

target only those most likely to vote instead of those who are underrepresented. Citizens unlikely

to vote continue to mull in their dissatisfaction with the government, but instead of getting

involved in campaigns or voting, choose to stay home on election days.

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From observing my own findings as well as my classmates’ findings throughout the

QUEST project, I’ve discovered that all social issues are extremely multifaceted and require

extensive research and critical thinking to remedy. But specifically through my own QUEST

project, I was able to explore a topic that interested me through research, observation and

service––a combination that I had not yet experienced in high school. I was forced to think

critically and in new perspectives in order to synthesize the best solution I could take part in for

remedying the social issue, and was even lucky enough to find the exact service I had hoped for.

However, the most important thing that I have experienced and seen for myself, as well as the

most obvious, is that I am only an individual incapable of making dramatic change. The actions

of an individual in his or her microcosm can only drive a purpose towards so far. It takes the

effort of each individual, making his or her own limited contributions, to attain true change.

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Works Cited

Branson, Margaret S. "The Importance of Promoting Civic Education." The Importance of

Promoting Civic Education. Jordanian Center for Civic Education, 31 Jan. 2003. Web. 21

Oct. 2013. <http://jcces.org/MargaretBranson.htm>.

Freeman, Richard B. "Fighting Turnout Burnout." American Prospect. 1 jun. 2004: A16. Web. 3

Mar. 2014. <http://elibrary.bigchalk.com>.

Harris, Jeff. Personal Interview. 26 November 2013.

Kahne, Joseph. Personal Interview. 19 January 2014.

"Nonvoters: Who They Are, What They Think." Pew Research Center for the People and the

Press RSS. Pew Research Center, 1 Nov. 2012. Web. 27 Nov. 2013.

Page, Susan. "Why 90 Million Americans Won't Vote in November." USATODAY.COM. USA

TODAY, 15 Aug. 2012. Web. 20 Oct. 2013.

<http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/politics/story/2012-08-15/non-voters-obama-

romney/57055184/1>.

"The Dangers of Political Apathy." The Spectator Archive. The Spectator (1828), 22 Aug. 1891.

Web. 21 Oct. 2013. <http://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/22nd-august-1891/9/the-

dangers-of-political-apathy>.

"Why Young People Don't Vote." CIRCLE. CIRCLE (The Center for Information & Research

on Civic Learning and Engagement), 13 May 2011. Web. 01 Mar. 2014.

<http://www.civicyouth.org/why-young-people-dont-vote/>.

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