Author and Journalist Amy Eskind has just published the book, “VOTE: A Guide for Young Adults.” She says she wrote it after hearing about the dismal voting numbers following the 2016 presidential election between Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton.
“40% of the electorate didn't vote in the 2016 presidential election,” Eskind said. “And I wanted to know why. And I got in the car, and I drove across the country, and I found out a lot. One of the most interesting things I found out is that it's mostly young adults who don't vote. And I wanted to write about a book for this election, about why young adults need to see their opportunity.”
The book is short – just 31 pages. Eskind says it’s a book of answers to the questions she heard most on her trip across the country.
She notes that it wasn’t until 1971 when the 26th Amendment was passed by Congress and ratified by states that gave those 18 years and older the right to vote. During WWII, the draft age to be sent to war was lowered to 18, but those same teens being sent to war, she says, didn’t have the right to vote for the leaders who were making the decisions to go to war.
The youth she spoke to on her cross-country travels told her they don’t vote for a number of reasons, such as they go to school in a different state from where they live, or they don’t understand local political issues or candidates.
“A lot of people felt like they didn't know enough about issues to vote,” she said. “They felt insecure about that. Another thing is a lot of people felt like ‘I don't do politics.’ It just seems scary. It was argumentative. And there were, especially now, very extreme views on both sides. It just seemed easier to say ‘I don't do politics. I'm apolitical.’ But the truth is, none of us are apolitical, everything that our government does affects our pocketbook.”
Utah’s State Legislature is a supermajority. Anything Republican members want to do can usually find the votes to do it and Democrats don’t have the numbers to overrule or veto. But Eskind says Utah isn’t as conservative as many people may think and uses the 2020 presidential election as an example.
“The difference between Biden and Trump [in Utah] was 304,000 votes, the number of people who didn't vote was 700,000. And among the young people who did vote, they were pretty evenly spread between Trump and Biden. So, anything can happen, and people shouldn't think that this is a red state and it's a foregone conclusion. Nothing could be further from the truth.”
Eskind is hopeful parents will buy the book for their children. In the meantime, she’s busy writing op-eds and mailing them to newspapers across the county, including the top 12 most populous states. Every single one of these states she says had a higher number of people who didn’t vote than the margin between those who decided the 2020 election.
Her book is available online for purchase. She is also accepting invitations to speak to high school students and answer their questions about voting. You can email her at amyeskindmedia@gmail.com.
