While to many it may have been well known that the midterm elections took place last week, statistics are showing otherwise.

Only an estimated 21.3 percent of millennials voted in the midterm elections, according to a Nov. 5 International Business Times article, which is similar to the 20.4 percent of millennials who voted during the 2010 elections.

Many millennials have taken to their social media accounts, frustrated over the GOP’s control of Congress. If more millennials had voted, the results may have been in favor of the Democratic Party. So the crucial question is, why didn’t we vote? I think a large reason for this includes a mixture of apathy, but mostly, lack of information.

For example, on Nov. 4, I was sitting in the library with a friend of mine, when I asked her if she voted. She looked at me, confused, and asked, “Voted for what?” We were on the first floor of the library, where voting stations had been set up on that same floor. Although there were two voting stations on Syracuse University’s campus — in the Nancy Cantor Warehouse and in Bird Library — the overall campus’ atmosphere days and weeks before Nov. 4 was not the same as it was during the 2012 presidential elections.

When MTV announced its #WhyIDidntVote hashtag, many took to Twitter and explained their side of the story. One of these Twitter users accurately portrayed the typical millennial procrastinator when he tweeted, “First, it was apathy; then, I forgot to register #whyididntvote.” However, although apathy towards politics from our generation does indeed exist, I don’t think this was the primary reason many millennials tossed their vote aside last week.

Instead, I think a large factor in millennials’ low voter turnout has to do with lack of information concerning how to vote and the steps people need to take in advance. For example, college student Zee Krstic (@zee_krstic) tweeted what many college students experience when voting time comes along. Krstic said, “@MTV I didn’t vote because I’m an out-of-state college student and mail-in ballots are LITERALLY impossible to understand #whyididntvote.”

This tweet reveals a major issue millennials face, since many college students who travel outside of their home state or outside of their voting precinct, have to fill out an absentee ballot well in advance. This can discourage college students from voting, since millennials are used to getting things done with the touch of their fingertips.

In my case, I didn’t vote because I’m not a registered voter and wasn’t really aware of the registration process since I moved back to America in 2012. Unfortunately, when I did try to register, it seemed like it was too late because there was no quick way to register online and most options included going to register in-person or downloading the form online and sending it by mail.

Millennials must realize that voting is a great right to exercise, and they need to move past the apathy and seek out information they may need to reflect their opinion through the polls.

Tamara Rasamny is a junior international relations and newspaper and online journalism dual major. Her column appears weekly. She can be reached at twrasamn@syr.edu.

Published on November 12, 2014 at 12:01 am