About time young adults got up off the sofa, got into the voting booth
By ERNEST HOOPER
Published February 4, 2004
I hope Buddy Johnson has more luck than Janet Jackson.
Lost amid the furor of Jackson's Super Bowl flash was the halftime show's intended message for fans and particularly young people: Vote.
The plea got diluted somewhere between P Diddy and Kid Rock and it had no chance of resurfacing with Nelly singing, "So take off all your clothes." When Jackson did just that moments later, young America had forgotten all about John Kerry and Howard Dean.
Johnson, the county's supervisor of elections, is taking a far different approach. Thankfully. A five-day registration drive begins Thursday, and the first day will be aimed squarely at getting college students to the polls. Registration stations will be placed at the University of South Florida, University of Tampa and five Hillsborough Community College campuses.
Any student interested in halting tuition hikes and seeing more funds devoted to student loans shouldn't need an invitation. But for whatever reason, apathy seems to be at an all-time high with young people. Consequently, their representation in Tallahassee and Washington, D.C., is at an all-time low.
"They have the potential for being a political force," said Dave Beattie, president of the national polling and strategy firm Hamilton Beattie & Staff. "The problem is neither party has any kind of consistent or coherent platform that appeals to younger voters, college students or not. The orientation of government is much more toward families and seniors. In essence, they don't have to worry about outrage from younger votes."
The immediate impact of a more engaged student body could be lower tuition and greater class availability. And remember, with more and more nontraditional students on campus, the rising cost of higher education means more than making someone like 20-year-old HCC honors student Sara Edington take on another job (she already has two).
It means increasing the burden of folks like 32-year-old HCC medical program student Robert Evans. When legislators hike tuition, they don't even think of someone like Evans, who has a wife, a full-time job and two kids.
"It's just a matter of getting (the students) educated and making them realize we do have a voice," said Evans, one of three college students who attended Tuesday's press conference.
And here's another reason for students to make some noise. Beattie said between record state and federal budget deficits, cuts in education funding and an aging population, current government spending is being piled on the shoulders of young people.
If they do not start voting, their future financial burden will be the largest of any generation in our nation's history.
If they started consistently voting as a bloc, they could wield as much influence as blacks or Hispanics. According to the Southern Regional Education Board, there were 707,684 students in post secondary schools in 2000. If they had all voted, they would have accounted for 12 percent of the total turnout in the 2000 election in Florida. Blacks and Hispanics accounted for 9 percent each.
Young people are a sleeping giant in politics. Janet Jackson couldn't wake them up with her strip tease, but maybe Johnson can get them going without taking his clothes off.
Maybe.
* * *
Each day of this registration drive is themed. On Friday, registration stations will be at Walgreens locations throughout the county. Saturday the drive moves to Kash n' Karry stores and, on Sunday, to three area malls: University Square, Brandon and Citrus Park.
Johnson hopes for big numbers on Saturday and Sunday, thinking a lot of people shop on Saturday and many go to the mall on Sunday.
The drive's final day will focus on the four public libraries: Riverview Branch, College Hill Branch, West Gate Regional and Jimmie B. Keel Regional. Each of those libraries also will be used for early voting between Feb. 23 and March 6. It'll be the first time early voting will be offered outside the supervisor's offices.
Summation? Convenience is up; excuses are almost nonexistent. That's all I'm saying.
