Why are local young people tuning out the real issues?
Sunday, September 30th, 2007
By Chris Fitzsimon
By Dashiell Coleman
GUEST COLUMNIST September 30, 2007 12:15 am
Given the mindset of my generation, it’s nothing short of incredible that I was actually able to take off my headphones, close my cell phone and ignore the media’s constant coverage of Britney Spears’ chub long enough to write a column about an important civic crisis.
The issue I’m addressing here is the startling and outright pathetic lack of voting of people my age. While writing this, I asked 10 people aged 18-22, all local college students, if they knew who our mayor is. Exactly three of them did. Our future’s in fantastic hands, eh?
That’s precisely what it is, too; our future. I recently went to the Buncombe County Board of Election on College Street to find out as much as I could about voting statistics for this area. Our entire democratic process doesn’t seem to be too awfully high on the priority list for many people in Buncombe County, which is undeniably a sad thing in a nation that’s been built on the idea of government of the people and by the people.
In 2006, Buncombe County had an estimated population of 222,174 people. Of that number, 159,901 were registered to vote in November of last year. Of all those potential voters, only 78,687 actually got out and did the deed. That’s right, not even half of Buncombe County’s voters turned out, and that’s one of the bigger elections. Far fewer, only 16,183 people, participated in the May 2 primary elections earlier in 2006. That’s less than 14 percent of this county’s population. How can the public’s opinions really be heard when a whopping 86 percent of the people don’t even vote for local officials? (more…)
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