It’s midterm election season, and a USC professor is holding an info session on how to vote and why students’ votes matter. Nora Miller has the story on voter mobilization.
Midterm elections are just around the corner, and USC is working to ensure students have a better idea of how their vote will count. USC Price School of Public Policy professor Mindy Romero is heading resources for the USC community. Her most recent effort is a voter access Zoom webinar on Thursday at 12 p.m.
ROMERO: We’re going to talk about really the state of access for voters, from disability rights to outreach and voter education efforts for a broad range of groups, particularly historically under-represented groups.
The discussion will also include two state-level election officials from Georgia and Colorado. The event can shed light on the state of voter access in California and hopes to discuss the possible impacts of the constantly evolving voting methods today.
ROMERO: What we’re talking about here is people’s access, ability, opportunity and, quite frankly, challenges, to being able to actually participate and how do we get a representative electorate.
Romero identifies the biggest roadblock facing youth voter turnout as the disconnect between current policy and young people.
ROMERO: We don’t support young people in helping them learn how and why it’s important to mobilize really key. And instead, young people turn 18 and we expect them to magically both know how to vote and want to vote.
Only about 50% of young people typically vote while around 76% of people from 65 to 74 vote according to the United States census. Romero also noted this while she was discussing the event.
ROMERO: There’s lots of research in the elections field that shows that the best motivator, our trusted messenger, is a fellow young person for young people, peer to peer contact.
The mobilization of young voters impacts policy within communities and leads to a disconnect between people who want to be involved and do not know how.
ROMERO: If young people care about a certain set of issues, they want to see real change to affect themselves, their communities, the world. It’s a multi-pronged approach. Voting is one very important part of that approach.
This year’s election is coming up soon on Tuesday November 8th. You can learn more about voter registration and voting on campus at voteusc.com.