Students Surveying Outside University Hall | Photo provided by Lee Hannah
By: Hayden Hooker
Dr. Lee Hannah, a professor of political science, and his Campaigns and Elections class surveyed 384 students at Wright State University. The survey offers a glimpse into students' political leanings and intentions ahead of the 2024 presidential election.
This article, written by Student Hayden Hooker, explores why some students do not plan to vote and examines the challenges that even committed voters may face.
The Survey
In our Campaigns and Elections class, we conducted a survey on two Tuesdays in October, inviting students to complete either a paper or online version about the upcoming 2024 presidential election.
We asked students who they were voting for and 46% plan to vote for Harris, 28% for Trump, and 19% were undecided.
However, we must also focus on who actually plans on voting, as voiced support is only so much compared to an actual vote. Our survey found that 81% of those who wish to vote for Kamala Harris also actively plan to vote, while only 71% of those in support of Donald Trump actively plan to vote.
This article aims to understand why those that do not plan to vote are deciding to not, and also aims to understand why even those voting may find it difficult to vote.
Throughout the U.S. history of elections, enticing college students or younger voters in general has been a challenge.
To help understand why, our survey asked two related questions based around the difficulty of voting for students.
The first simply asked “How easy or difficult do you think it is for college students like you to vote?”, with answer choices including neither difficult nor easy, easy, and difficult.
The second question “Which of the following factors are most likely to prevent college students like you from voting [SELECT ONE]?” aimed to understand why an individual answered the way they did on the first question.
Answer options included lack of information on the voting process, inconvenience of poll location, belief that voting doesn’t change anything, disliking the candidate options, lack of time to spend waiting to vote, lack of interest in elections and government, lack of transportation to vote, and an option to choose other and include explanation.
From the first question, 43% of the responses claimed it was easy, 40% of the responses claiming it was neither difficult nor easy, and 17% of the responses claiming it was difficult.
Based on this data, Wright State students reflect the belief of those surveyed through the Campus Vote Project in which 17% said it was very easy to vote and 42% said it was pretty easy. These can be grouped together since our survey included one option of “easy” rather than two, resulting in a combined total of 59%.
Additionally, 27 % said it was neither easy or difficult, and 13% claimed it was pretty difficult.
The data, while not exactly the same, is extremely similar and would present the idea that voting is easy or at least achievable for the average student. However, Wright State's survey and the Campus Vote Projects surveys alike found that while answering it was easy, there is a recognized challenge to actually vote among students.
While only 65 respondents claimed it was difficult, the Wright State survey found that 66 (24%) participants have a belief voting does not change anything. 52 (19%) dislike the candidate options, 28 (10%) find an inconvenience with polling locations and 52 (19%) feel there is a lack of information on the voting process.
Additionally, 37 (13%) find a lack of interest in elections and government, 21 (8%) have a lack of time to spend waiting to vote, 17 (6%) have a lack of transportation to vote, and 7 (3%) find other difficulties trying to vote, which equals 280 respondents, vastly outnumbering the 65 respondents that said it was difficult.
Even accounting for those that said it was difficult, only 32 respondents in our survey said they did not plan on voting, which is a minor compared to the 65 that said it was difficult to vote.
What is driving students to the polls?
As described through the Hechinger Report, “More than half of [the] Americans ages 18 to 24 turned out for the 2020 general election, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That proportion was up by more than 8 percentage points from 2016, and has been closing in on the voting rate for adults of all ages”.
Further evidence provided by Civic Nation describes “In the 2020 General Election, the national student voting rate was 66%, a 14-point increase from 2016. The rate of registered students who voted hit 80%, up from 69% in 2016”.
This data shows that despite difficulties incurred, students are voting at higher rates than before, and this could be due to the growing presence of issues relating to this age group.
Our survey held a question asking respondents to “select three issues that have informed your decision for president” and this question found predominantly that Wright State students main issues were the economy and abortion.
While the economy is a broad topic encompassing all voter issues, more college students have found a drive through issues like abortion, and this is portrayed through the survey. This is because many college students more so than ever have felt personally liable for any decisions made through those at the head of our political system.
Issues have become more politicized overtime and with this has attracted more voter turnout, whether this be for support or disapproval of whatever the voting topic may be.
As well, there was a proportionately higher voter turnout for younger voters than ever before, according to the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement.
“Gen Z is voting at a higher rate than previous generations in its first national elections, show[ing] that today’s young people are interested and engaged in political participation.” the article reads.
This indicates that college students want to be involved in the process and do truly care about some issues presented to the nation. At the same time, difficulty voting forms from the political divide in this country, which is unlike anything we have seen before.
As our survey showed 19% dislike the candidate options. This is reflected through a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center.
“About a quarter (23%) offer a response related to the political environment, including 10% who cite concerns regarding candidate choices and 10% who mention the divisive political environment” the article reads.
There must be an understanding that voter difficulty is only caused by those in charge of providing information and the lack of help provided with the voting process.
College students particularly are more engaged than the group has ever been before and college aged students are more directly affected by issues than ever.
Through an extensive look into improving accessibility to voting and increasing the public view of the candidates there is a chance that a higher voter turnout can be achieved.
