In 2017 the Oxford Dictionaries chose “youthquake” as their word of the year. The term they said saw a 401% increase due in part, they said, to young voters mobilizing in that year’s general elections in the UK and New Zealand.
Here in 2018 most of the US young voter registrations are up significantly. NBC News reported recently: […] young voters between the ages of 18 and 29 years old make up an increasing share of those registering to vote in a handful of key states.
Pennsylvania has seen the sharpest increase — 61 percent of new voter registrations come from young voters, compared to 45 percent before the [Parkland, Fla. school] shooting.
Target Smart, a Democratic data firm, found a two percent nationwide uptick in registrations by youth (18 to 29 years old) — who skew more liberal on many issues. Since the Parkland shooting, gun control measures have been a particular motivator, they find.
Vermont and its upside-down doppelganger New Hampshire are clearly reacting differently to the potential “Youthquake” voting.
In Vermont, since 2016 you can automatically register eligible voters who apply for a driver’s license or state ID. The state has seen 18-to-29 year-old voter registration up 6 percent in 2018. As Vermont Secretary of State and more recently as president of the National Association of Secretaries of State, Jim Condos is almost constantly in the news working to increase voter access and to guard election processes from cyber-attacks.
Meanwhile New Hampshire — home of the first-in-the-nation Presidential Primary © ™ — the reaction differs. Governor Sununu (R, of course) last month signed legislation to take effect in July 2019 that will limit election participation by many college-age voters originally from out of state. From Slate.com: [the law] effectively imposed a poll tax on college students, compelling many of them to pay hundreds of dollars in fees to establish residence in the state before they’re permitted to vote in New Hampshire. Once it takes effect, the law is almost certain to chill the franchise of younger Democratic-leaning voters — to an extent that could swing the state’s famously close elections
Note that in the 2016 New Hampshire election, 19 percent of the general election voters were under 30 years old. And these more liberal young voters proved significant to Hillary Clinton’s popular vote total and electing former Governor Maggie Hassan as their Democratic U.S. Senator in 2016.
It says “live free or die” on New Hampshire license plates, but if they want the franchise, young voters might be freer if they “see Vermont.”
It’s so annoying that many outside the region conflate the two states and simply assume that what is true of one state is also true of the other.
Sanders has pushed for the very young to register. Of course, with the hope that he offers of everything free, like college, like healthcare, like rent, food, child care, paid family leaves, etc., they believe it truly is all free. And why not? THEY HAVE NEVER PAID TAXES themselves. They live in their parents basements, play video games all day, and do not pay the exorbitant taxes in this state. Pretty pathetic that Sanders a few years ago, wanted 16 year olds to register. WRONG!!!
I’m not aware of Bernie advocating for free food and rent for all. He does of course support assistance for those who need assistance; and with the cost of education as high as it is and a feeble minimum wage, sometimes it is the very young who need that assistance. It may astonish you to know that young people don’t generally live in their parents’ basement because they can’t face the responsibilities of living on their own.
That is a convenient myth embraced by those who want someone to blame for their own anemic ascendency and Republicans use that and animas toward immigrants to distract middle America from the fact that most of the wealth and economic power in this country is now concentrated in the hands of a tiny, tiny fragment of the population.
In fact most civilized countries recognize healthcare as a human right and education as the boon to national prosperity that it is. Most of the world has learned the lessons that we have forgotten: that a healthy, well-adjusted and well-educated population is one that stars in the global economy.
I guess it’s tell Bernie to: “GET HIS KIDS OFF MY LAWN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” time again isn’t it?