Why Young People Don’t Show Up at the Polls

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/11/opinion/letters/youth-vote.html

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To the Editor:

Re “Inspiring Young Voters, but Not Enough to Push Them to the Ballot Box” (news article, March 5):

I am writing to offer further context about the emerging electorate and their lack of participation at the voting booth. The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation recently published the largest study ever of nonvoters, which included a close look at voting-eligible Americans ages 18 to 24.

The study shows that we could potentially be losing a generation of voters. They report a substantially lower interest in politics generally and in voting in 2020 even than Americans who chronically don’t vote. The top reasons cited by those who said they will not vote are that they don’t care about politics and they don’t like the candidates.

The challenge — not only to candidates like Bernie Sanders but to the democratic system as well — is to demonstrate how voting can affect the daily lives of these young Americans. Until they feel the impact that participation can have, it’s unlikely that they’ll show up in force at the polls.

Evette AlexanderMiamiThe writer is director of Learning and Impact Strategy at the Knight Foundation.

To the Editor:

Michael Bloomberg should fund a PAC, a series of scholarships or some other effort with the primary goal of getting young people actively involved in liberal politics at every level.

The future of the Democrats and democracy rests on a young, committed electorate. This will be especially important in winning races in the Senate and the House. It will also develop a pool of young, liberal lawyers, some of whom will eventually move into the judicial system.

Steve ZolotowLas Vegas

To the Editor:

Re “Trump Exploits Kids Exploited by Sex Trade” (column, Feb. 27):

Nicholas Kristof tries to undermine the outstanding accomplishments of the Trump administration in the fight against human trafficking.

He claims that the administration’s efforts to combat trafficking is “less about protecting children and more about exalting Trump,” and that the administration “has also made no attempt to address underlying causes of trafficking.”

Mr. Kristof’s assertions are wrong.

President Trump has signed nine pieces of anti-trafficking legislation. Ivanka Trump, his daughter and adviser, hosted a summit in January where the president announced a White House staff position devoted to combating domestic trafficking. Through the administration’s Anti-Trafficking Coordination Team, federal law enforcement obtained more than 500 convictions of human traffickers in 2018 and increased the number of defendants charged by 75 percent in ACTeam districts.

Mr. Trump also proposes a budget above congressional levels to support state and local efforts to combat trafficking.

Mr. Kristof should talk to those of us on the front lines fighting this scourge so we can set the record straight on the additional resources the Trump administration has delivered to assist victims and prosecute traffickers.

Kevin MaloneWashingtonThe writer is a co-founder of the U.S. Institute Against Human Trafficking.

To the Editor:

Re “Silicon Valley Needs the Government” (Op-Ed, Feb. 28):

Eric Schmidt, the former chairman and C.E.O. of Google, rightly warns that the United States is no longer the uncontested leader in science and technology — strengths that competitor countries like China are methodically bolstering to meet economic and other strategic objectives.

As he asserts, it’s time for our government to step up with an innovation-fueling strategy of our own. Mr. Schmidt has his finger on the pulse of public sentiment in this regard.

We know from our recently commissioned public opinion survey that a majority of Americans — across party lines — support investing in research for job creation, economic growth and global competitiveness. We know that they “get” the value of government-financed noncommercial research and private-sector research and development alike. What are we waiting for?

Let’s double our commitment to all federal science agencies over five years and design policies that will support the public-private partnerships Mr. Schmidt calls for. We can’t afford not to.

Mary WoolleyArlington, Va.The writer is president and chief executive of Research!America.