Plus, the “Meramec Minute” returns!
BY: RYAN WINZEN
Staff Writer
With the presidential election coming up in November this year, the issue of voting has been a prominent discussion both locally and nationally.
Rita Fitzjarrell is the leader of 350 St. Louis, a local chapter of the climate change organization 350.org. “I want students to get involved in a life-long process. Make it something they want to do,” said Fitzjarrell.
Fitzjarrell talked about how she originally got involved with voting and how that has impacted her work. “My dad took me to register at 18, he wanted me to get involved. For those who did not get that opportunity, we want to be that opportunity. It makes a big difference,” she said.
Fitzjarrell said that 350 St.Louis is doing everything possible to get young students to vote.
“We’re trying to register enough voters that we can before the next presidential election. We come two days a week, Wednesday and Thursday. We try to get students who attend on different patterns. We’ll do it until May and will have registration on campus until Oct. 8,” said Fitzjarrell.
Why are not as many young people voting as compared to the older generations?
“I think they are getting the impression that voting is not getting them what they want. You have to look at the overall picture and look for the candidate who checks off the most boxes for you. I’ve hardly found a candidate who checks off all the boxes, but I’ve found ones who check off the boxes that are most important to me,” said Fitzjarrell.
Fitzjarrell and her group will be collecting signatures for Missourians for Constitutional Freedom (MFCF) Women’s Reproductive Healthcare Initiative Petition (IP) until the end of April.
Political science professor John Messmer said voting can bring power and change.
“Simply, most of us don’t have connections to interest groups that lobby the government. The government is only gonna change its policies and laws if it’s pressured,” said Messmer.
Messmer also mentioned why voting may not appeal to younger generations.
“Students say that politicians don’t care about issues that I care about. These campaigns have access to data and this data says that young people don’t want to vote, so they don’t appeal to those groups,” said Messmer. “Young people are just in a completely different universe than older people. If they constantly see policies that favor these old people stuff, they might be the fire that urges them to vote.”
Fitzjarrell stressed the importance of how voting can lead to unfavorable results. “Bad politicians get elected by good people who don’t vote,” said Fitzjarrell.
