Is It Really Political Apathy?

With the next elections approaching quickly, people have questions: Who is running? What do they stand for? Should I vote? Recently, a gap in the number of young people who vote has been associated with the phrase “political apathy.” According to The Harvard Kennedy School, “College students have traditionally voted at one of the lowest rates of any group in the United States.” This question made me think about Galloway students and what their likelihood of voting would turn out to be. It turns out that it is quite high. A form was sent out to collect and better understand the opinions on voting in Galloway. About 88% of respondents said that they would choose to vote if they were of age. 

Most students opted to remain anonymous in the survey. The majority that wanted to vote had relatively the same idea that what seems like one vote will become powerful when combined with other votes. Nevertheless, there is always an opposing opinion. One student said that they don’t want to vote because they do not agree with either of the candidates’ actions. 

But how does this tie back into political apathy? Aside from age, there are numerous reasons for younger voters to decide not to vote. An article from PBS News had an interesting take on the question. One of the reasons mentioned is that young people are not, in fact, apathetic about politics, but more so that they are frustrated with politics. Joseph Lieberman, who was running for vice president on the same ballot as Al Gore, explained that many interns in his office described the political world as “nasty, expensive, too partisan, and [a place where] you don’t have any privacy.” If people view politics through these eyes, no wonder they do not want to vote. It sounds like an awful place in which to engage. 

But that is not all of the reasons for this unwillingness to vote. And it might not turn out to be an apathy of politics at all. According to ABC News, younger people are more likely to claim that “they or members of their household have experienced barriers to voting,” which would imply that they had found it physically difficult to get a hold of a ballot. In a survey put out by ABC, nearly a quarter of young people had said that they wanted to vote, but could not cast a ballot. This could be due to missing the deadline, being unable to find their polling place, or even not getting out of work in time to vote. 

ABC also reported that even though apathy is not the main reason why young people do not vote, they are not very passionate about supporting their candidates either. Many people expressed their frustration with the political system and how they feel that their votes do not matter. Briana Thompson, a voter in South Carolina, told ABC that with each new election, she gets “increasingly more jaded.” This ‘jadedness’ seems to be a common factor in most people’s decisions to vote or not. If people believe that their vote and their opinion do not count or matter in the long run, why would they even want to vote in the first place? 

I don’t think the phrase ‘political apathy’ best describes the issue at hand. Yes, there are people who may not seem interested in the elections at hand or even at all, but the vast majority of them are interested in voting. Even at Galloway, there is a clear passion present about voting and the impact it has on our society. Questioning the system is a good example of that passion. It shows that people want their opinions to be heard, and if they think that they are not being listened to, that is reason enough to rule out the assumption of apathy. 

By Lucy Ringel