​
MILLENNIAL VOTING
Jamyra Carvin & Cabarrius Frierson
Over the past year's, millennial's have not felt the need to exercise their voting rights. This has been going on for years where you may have a few millennial's that would only vote for the presidential elections. What millennial's fail to realize is that although the presidential elections are important, so are any other election. I can say this generation some people are content with being lazy and filled with tons of excuses.
​
This midterm election everyone was strongly encouraging the youth to vote. Especially since whoever was voted for the Senate and Governor will establish laws that could affect the youth's future. Ex-veteran Steve Daugherty came up with an awesome analogy about voting.
​
He said, “So think of a race horse. It has four legs, and if its missing anyone of those legs it doesn’t win a race. Think of an election, it has four aspects to an election. Registrations, education, motivation, and facilitation. Those are the four legs to that race horse. So, registering is what I and the American democracy project and others around the university were trying to do earlier. The education piece is like that banner down there that has a side by side comparison of the issues of the candidates and their position. the motivation you might say could be those 22-yard signs scatter with motivational quotes about voting on them. The facilitation is getting people to vote...”
​
There were plenty of volunteers at the polls who were ready to cheer on the first-time voters. Also, there were so many ways for the youth to get to the polls so there should not have been any excuses especially when people rented out vans just to take students to the polls. Even with some people's excuses, this midterm election believe that the youth voices were heard.
​
Middle Tennessee State University student Destiny Taylor explains how she feels like she’s inadequate being a voter.
“If I vote it would feel like my vote wouldn’t matter as much.” says Taylor. “ My mother made me vote during the midterm election, even though I really didn’t want to.”
​
In the Teen Vogue article, it mentioned, “an estimate 31% of eligible voters age 18 to 29 actually voted.”
​
Although 31% is good, but the youth still has to make progress. Because the youth is the first people to complain about something, but they never allow their voices to be heard. This is why it is so important that the youth stay updated with what is going on. Because how could you live somewhere, and not know the laws that are put in place whether you voted for them or not.
​
Steve Daugherty said, “the 18- 24-year-old demographic is the lowest participating aged group in the nation and Tennessee has the lowest voter participation in all 50 states.”
For the next election, Tennessee as a whole should challenge not only ourselves, but others to go out and vote and continue to raise the percentage of college aged voters. Because at the end of the day we can control what will happen to us for our future. Or even think about it this way, you want the right to complain about stuff then let your voice be heard so you can do so.
​
Research shows that Generation X were born from 1965-1980, and millennials were born from the year 1981-1996. The post-millennials were born from the year 1997-present and this generation is known to not be active voters. Post-millennials feel like their votes don’t or that “voting doesn’t change anything”. There isn’t any effort with post-millennials voting and they feel like It isn’t an obligation for them to participate in governmental decisions that can affect their lives.
​
The Generation X has a different mindset when it comes to voting. In the time of Generation X (1965), it was more of a privilege to vote if you were to grow up in that time frame. People died, particularly minorities, to even exercise their right to vote. Voting was something that was fought for, so it is near and dear to a lot of Generation X hearts.
Voting never was an option for minorities. It was to the point that civil rights leaders had to protest and march for their voting equality.
The government made it difficult to register, because they were forcing minorities take a literacy test that was complicated to complete. The literacy test would consist of questions like “Name the attorney general of the United States” and “Can you be imprisoned, under Alabama law, for a debt?” It was mostly questions that any other American wouldn’t be able to answer. It was to discourage the minority population, to get them uninterested to vote.
​
Annie Lee Cooper was a Civil Rights activist that was part of the Selma Voting Rights Movement that took place inn 1965. Cooper story is important to for Generation X because she was a person that completed the literacy test and passed on paper. But unethically was given a verbal literacy test which resulted her a denial for her entire test. Cooper was also known for standing in a in line for hours outside the Dallas County Courthouse to register to vote on January 1965, until Sheriff Jim Clark ordered her to evacuate the area.
Clark hit Cooper in the neck with a club. Cooper turned around and hit the sheriff in the jaw, knocking him down. Deputies then fought Cooper to the ground as Clark continued to beat her repeatedly with his club. Cooper was charged with "criminal provocation" and was escorted to the county jail, and then held for 11 hours before being allowed to leave. Following this incident, Cooper became a registered voter in her home state.
​
This story shows the significant aspect of voting. The older generation take voting seriously because they knew that the way to change the laws that was built against them was to vote. It wasn’t an option to go voting, it was a requirement for a lot of black people. They didn’t give excuses for why they couldn’t vote like most post-millennials do in our day of time.
​
The new generation should take the importance of voting serious, because if students knew the history or the trials and tribulation that came with the rights to vote then they would take the process of voting just as serious and Generation X.