Turnout among those aged 18 to 29 has increased in recent midterms; it doubled between 2014 and 2018, for example. But it still pales in comparison with that of older generations
, in which all seats of the House of Representatives and one-third of those in the Senate are contested, is typically far lower than at presidential elections. Few are as uninterested in them as the young. . A series of polls conducted by YouGov on behalf of, or had cast their ballot early. Just 50% of those aged 18 to 29 said the same . But the reason for the young’s electoral coyness may not be what you expect.
Political apathy, the usual suspect, does explain part of the trend. Of the 50% of young Americans who were not certain that they would vote, 22% thought that researching candidates and their policies required too much effort. Some 16% believed that their vote did not matter; 14% said that they just didn’t care. But one-quarter of the 18- to 29-year-olds who were not sure that they would vote said it was because they did not know how to navigate America’s.
And yet young people are highly engaged in other types of political activism. In the same poll two-thirds of young respondents said that in the past two years they had attended a protest, signed a petition, donated to a political campaign or posted about a political issue on social media. They were three times as likely to have attended a demonstration than those aged 45 to 64.
This is tricky terrain for Democrats. The polling showed that younger Americans favour the party by 26 percentage points. But the fewer of them that turn out, the higher the chances that Democrats will lose both the House and the Senate.
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