During the 2020 Presidential Election, of those eligible to vote between the ages 18-29, 52-55% voted, according to data based on votes counted as of Wednesday from The Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement which is a research center on youth civic engagement.
This is a jump in youth voter turnout compared to past presidential elections, as in 2016 there was a 45-48% of youth voter turnout for those who were eligible to vote 18-29, according to CIRCLE.
With youth voting increasing and reaching historic highs, it has allowed this new generation, generally considered to care more about social media than politics, to now become informed and care about politics.
Well, what could be a contributing factor to such a high youth vote turnout? Everywhere one looked, there were ads and announcements about making sure to register to vote and to vote either by mail or in-person.
Social media platforms like Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter and many more were letting users know every time they would log on to register to vote and would even implement links where you could do so. These links were implemented under posts that would mention anything that had to do with voting or information on the election.
According to an NBC article, a national poll released by the Institute of Politics at Harvard Kennedy School showed Americans aged 18-29 had as much enthusiasm to vote during the 2020 Presidential Election as in 2008, which was also a historic year for youth voters.
Moving forward, this presidential election will be remembered as the election that made a lot of the younger generation care about politics and to actually have their voices heard.
I know for me personally, I was someone who informed myself about world events but never really wanted to inform myself about what was going on in our government up until the past few years. Everyone has their set of beliefs and wants to change the country for the better and we are able to do that through voting.
I wasn’t the only one to feel this shift, as other peers around me went from not caring about watching the news or informing themselves suddenly to informing themselves not only on the presidential and Senate races, but on local elections and state propositions.
As we were getting closer to November there was a feeling of how much of an impact youth voting was going to have this year, as social media piled up with reminders to vote. Not only social media platforms pushed for their users to vote, but the users themselves pushed others on the platform to go out and vote.
This election really set the tone for any upcoming elections because as a first-time voter, seeing this overwhelming response from everyone my age who is demanding for change to go out and vote will keep us informed going forward. As the youth of this country now, the choices we make on our ballots will only inch us closer to the America we want to live in for years to come.