TO THE EDITOR:
This is a response to the editorial urging young people to vote.
Voting habits are hard to attribute to one thing definitively. People can pick up habits from their friends, parents, educators, church or really anywhere else. Regardless of where they are picked up, one thing remains true: If you want young people to vote, you have to teach them their voice matters.
This is where North Carolina is failing.
The General Assembly of North Carolina decided that preparing young people was not something it wanted to pursue. Early voter registration programs, which were designed to get 16- and 17-year-olds ready for the polls, were shut down. The same set of rules also ban same-day registration. Two different regulations which have the effect of curbing the youth vote.
These same set of regulations do not only harm the young. The voting laws disproportionately affect minority groups.
It is important to realize who made these regulations. A Republican majority passed the bill, and the Democratic voter base is the one most affected. The right to vote shouldn’t be a partisan struggle. It isn’t that the General Assembly doesn’t care about the youth vote, but rather they are afraid of it.
The mantra of “One voice, one vote” isn’t in affect in North Carolina. Young people will continue to be apathetic, at least in part because that’s what the system we are in encourages.
Brandon Morrissey
