According to Politico, Obama is  the first president in US history to win due to the youth vote.  Traditionally, older generations have cast the deciding ballots in presidential elections but since 2008 this pattern has shifted. Now candidates running for presidency consider millennials to be an important constituency and recognize the power they yield…when they decide to go out and vote. College students don’t vote in local elections but they have proven to be pivotal in national elections. The challenge is to make college students aware of the influence they can potentially have in subnational urban politcs.

Why the College Vote Matters:

-College students will vote with the specific needs of college students in mind

-College students are also known as millennials. Currently, there are 44 million millennials eligible to vote. Millennials are the largest generation in the nation’s history and make up about a third of the total electorate, there is power in numbers.

– Millennial voters are the most racially diverse constituency

For further exploration on how younger generations are reshaping American politics read “The Good Citizen” by Russel J Dalton

Why College Students don’t Vote in Local Elections:

-Local Elections Get Less Media Coverage

College voters have less information about local candidates and their platform and this makes them less likely to go out and vote.

-Millennials have a high mobility rate

Millennials move more often than any other group. The desire to participate in local politics decreases when an individual doesn’t believe local policies will affect their personal lives since they are not going to be in that area for long

–Low rates of home ownership

Research on this topic demonstrates  that when an individual owns a home they are more likely to engage in the local politics in the area where their home is. Owning a home makes an individual part of a neighborhood for a more permanent period of time. Individuals who feel like they are a part a of community are more likely to become involved in politics in the area because they are more likely to think about how policies will affect their own communities.

Data gathered from the study “Why Millennials Don’t Vote for Mayor” by the Knight Foundation