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Another PSA for Millennial Voters

Another PSA for Millennial Voters

There’s less than one month until election day, which means that presidential candidates have been campaigning for nearly a year. That’s almost a year of bad slogans, attack ads, speeches, and debates (way too many debates).

It’s been exhausting, but I’m here to throw another online opinion piece about the importance of youth voters onto the pile. Because it is goddamn important that we vote.

Baby boomers have dominated the voting field since 1980. That means in the last two presidential elections, as well as the majority of local and state-level elections, people over the age of 60 have voted for politicians that represent their values. As a whole, that tends to be older, White, conservative men.

It’s why Congress looks like this. It’s why over 250 anti-queer bills have been introduced in Congress and in state legislatures since 2013. It’s why the Equal Rights Amendment is still just a proposal even after being introduced in every Congress since 1994. It’s why we need to vote, and not just against Trump.

Local and state level elections are more important than ever. Even if, in some nightmare version of reality, Trump wins the election, the presidential position doesn’t have as much power as we think it does. The legislature – the House of Representatives and the Senate – has a lot more power in terms of both the everyday business of running the country and in making new laws and policies. Executive orders can only go so far without the support of Congress, and right now Congress isn’t diverse or representative of the people who live in our country.

If we really want progress, we need more than a record-breaking 20 percent of women and 8.9 percent of African-Americans to be a part of the highest level of government. We need more people under the age of 59, and more people who actually show up for their constituents.

On November 8th, there will be 469 seats in Congress up for election. If you want to see real change, and not just keep Trump out of the White House, do your research on your local politicians and vote! In the state of Colorado you can send in an absentee ballot by mail, vote in-person at the polls on Election Day, or even vote early at certain locations (you can find information for your county here).

And if this soapbox article wasn’t enough to convince you, check out this great video by New Era Colorado’s project This is Why We Vote:

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