Attempts made to increase youth vote

By Grace Meiners

Published March 18, 2008

With the general election approaching in November, local organizers are doing what they can to get out the vote.

Advocates, researchers and others involved in the polling process gathered Saturday to speak to students about the importance of youth and women voting at the Get Out Her Vote Missouri Summit.

The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement conducted the event.

CIRCLE Youth Coordinator Abby Kiesa collects data and conducts research on civic engagement. She said there are 19 different measures of civic engagement, one of which is voting.

She said one of the things the CIRCLE Organization is interested in is the youth vote.

“CIRCLE does reliable, rigorous research that is practical for people,” Kiesa said. “The research looks at what works to get young people to vote.”

She said that although young people are normally judged as being apathetic, the research proves this stereotype wrong.

“The notion of being completely apathetic is tired, it’s old,” Kiesa said.

With the large turnout of youth voters during the Missouri primary on Feb. 5, Kiesa said campaign workers are forced to turn their attention to young voters. According to research done by CIRCLE, the turnout of 18-29 year-old voters tripled from the results of the 2000 primary.

She said one of the most effective ways to get young people to vote is to help them navigate the polling process. When organizations or campaigns send out information about the polling location and time along with a sample ballot, she said this raises the youth voter turnout by 10 percent.

Kiesa said because 80 percent of 18-29 year-olds that voted on Feb. 5 had at least some college experience campaigns are now looking to reach out to the noncollege youth.

Kerri McBee, executive director of the Alliance for the Status of Missouri Women, said one of the best ways young people can get involved and understand the voting process is to work at polling places. The various locations provide for different voting experiences.

She said women make a difference in the elections and that former President Bill Clinton’s large female following helped him in the polls.

“When we turn out to vote we can make a difference,” McBee said.

She said women should encourage their legislators to create more lenient voter policies in order to encourage voter turnout on Election Day.

Planned Parenthood spokeswoman Kellie Rohrbaugh and NARAL Pro-Choice Missouri director Pamela Sumners said there is a ballot initiative in Missouri that would make pressuring a woman more than twice to get an abortion a felony.

Rohrbaugh said initiatives like this are harmful to women.

“Figure out how to talk about abortion to someone close to you,” Rohrbaugh said.

This discussion will help people understand the importance of not allowing the ballot initiative to become law.

Boone County Clerk Wendy Noren also said women should push for liberal voter registration laws.

One problem Noren said she faces on Election Day is when people show up to their polling place containing the wrong ballot. When someone votes with the wrong ballot, Noren said this gives cause to challenge the election. Noren said a central polling location can help increase turnout. These polls have places to register and contain the different types of ballots to ensure valid voting.