Registering Young Voters has Yielded Mixed Results

By Sean YoesSpecial to the NNPA from Afro Newspapers BALTIMORE (NNPA) – In 1972, more than half of the nation’s 18 to 24-year olds went to the polls. However, only 36 percent of America’s 26.8 million citizens between 18 and 24 voted in the presidential election of 2000. America’s colleges and universities would seem like the most fertile ground to sow the seeds of the democratic process in young people and register new voters for life. But, it appears hundreds of colleges across the nation have simply blown off a federal mandate to register their students to vote. The Higher Education Act of 1998 requires all colleges and universities receiving federal money to make a ”good faith effort,” to simply distribute a voter registration form to each student and make the forms widely available at the school. That effort has to happen at least four months before the registration deadline in the state in which the institution resides. Last month, Harvard University’s Institute of Politics, along with The Chronicle of Higher Education sent surveys to 815 colleges and universities to determine whether they simply met the ”spirit” of the Higher Education Act. Only 249 schools responded to the survey. A mere 17 percent of the schools that answered the survey met the requirements of the law and 37 percent of the schools graded their effectiveness at registering young voters at “C” or worse. Some would suggest such lackluster results in registering young people to vote at the country’s bastions of higher education and knowledge is a sad commentary on our political future. Since January, there have only been about 2,591 new voters registered in the city of Baltimore, according to Marvin ”Doc” Cheatham, an elections specialist with the National Labor Relations Board and a former member of the Baltimore City Board of Elections. Cheatham, who claims he has registered more people in the state of Maryland than any other individual offers a couple of simple observations for the many groups who have launched voter registration efforts. ”The groups need to come together and work in a more coordinated way,” said Cheatham. According to Cheatham, there were several groups present at last week’s Baltimore County African-American Cultural Festival. ”But, who’s going to be at the supermarkets?” asked Cheatham. ”Sitting at a table trying to register people, it’s not going to happen. You’ve got to approach people, you’ve got to challenge them,” he said. But, the biggest challenge in Baltimore may be registering young voters. ”We’re trying to mobilize youth and get them more involved with not just politics but everyday life,” said 28-year-old Hassan Allen-Giordano, the state coordinator for the Maryland Voting Rights Restoration Coalition. According to Giordano, organizations have to re-think how they approach the nation’s youth if they want to spark political activism in them. ”Young people feel like, `they don’t speak to us, they speak over us.’ We’re trying to get them actively involved, but you have to speak their language,” said Giordano. “You need to go to where the people are. If you want to register youth, you just can’t be sitting at a table at a festival, because they’re going to walk right passed you. You need to go where they’re at.”