Election 2020: What’s driving young voters of color to the polls?

BOSTON — More than 15 million young Americans have turned 18 since the last presidential election and they have concrete issues they’re taking to the ballot box.

Massachusetts and the rest of the country witnessed a surge of demonstrations in the last few months, as communities of color tackle racial injustice. Those communities have also been hit hard by this pandemic. Boston 25 News reporter Crystal Haynes spoke with activist Arianna Constant-Patton, Harvard College Student Birukti Tsige, and youth coordinator, Jaquell Sneed.

CRYSTAL HAYNES: What are the issues you all are bringing to the ballot box this election?

BIRUKTI TSIGE: Healthcare, jobs, student debt, immigration, and race relations of course.

JAQUELL SNEED: Across the board, the most about is that government is represented. right now, that’s not true. it’s not true in many parts of our country.

HAYNES: Do you think that young voters 18 and older are actually informed on the issues?

SNEED: Young people don’t seem any less informed than any of the adults in my life. I actually work with so many more young people who are teaching their parents.

ARIANNA CONSTANT-PATTON: I just turned 18 a few weeks ago and to think, wow, I actually get to vote. like, I’m sitting with my mail-in vote and it’s like, dang! I get to make, this much, however much of a percent of a choice of who actually has power over things that are happening to me directly.

The stakes couldn’t be higher for young people like activist Arianna Constant-Patton this election year. Sixteen to 29-year olds accounted for a third of the rise in unemployment in the first months of the pandemic, according to the Brookings Institute.

TSIGE: Generational wealth. We need that, and so creating that for our family, so our kids won’t have to deal with the same exact situations we’re dealing with.

These young women tell me the environment is an important issue, and so is education policy reform.

CONSTANT-PATTON: But- I don’t like learning on Zoom! I know my 7-year-old nephew who’s in first grade is struggling to learn on Zoom. The kids are not in the classroom right now. What can we do about that? What are the actions we can put in place, and the education policy and things like that.

For Harvard College student Birukti Tsige, immigration is a focus. The Ethiopian immigrant is a legal resident and has been in the process of getting her citizenship status since she was eight.

TSIGE: I’m in the process of becoming a citizen, and there’s some parts of me that are like, should I even continue with this process if this is a country that doesn’t seem to value that anymore? Maybe I should do what their insult is and go back home or something like that, but then there are so many things that get me excited about the U.S. like making that change and making that effort.

From the economy to the death toll, the COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected people of color and these women’s communities. All of them spent the summer working to support the Black Lives Matter movement.

But after an American University study found only 29% of young black voters were motivated to vote this year, youth coordinator, Jaquell Sneed says she hopes activism wins out over apathy.

SNEED: Yeah, that’s true a lot of things haven’t worked out really well for us. It was not set up for us. We have to both sit in the reality that it will be more difficult and do it anyway.

CONSTANT-PATTON: This is not just about the candidate. This is not just about a title or whatever you may have it. It’s about the fact that you voting is taking one more leap of ownership of your own life.

TSIGE: I say this with love, if you don’t vote, that’s a cop-out. You can’t say anything for the next four years. So I really, really hope if you are able to vote, to gather your squad and make a plan.

We know Gen Z is plugged in. Facebook says more than 2.5 million people have registered to vote through its platforms. Snapchat says it has already registered more than 400,000 voters.

Cox Media Group