Fired Up and Ready to Vote

Michael Porter ’17, an economics major, never considered himself to be a political junkie.

That is, until he discovered a passion for politics while studying abroad for a semester in Denmark. Back in Grinnell, Porter enrolled in a class with Barbara Trish, professor of political science, and the rest is history (making). On Trish’s recommendation, he applied to and was selected to participate in College Debate 2016, a national, non-partisan initiative designed to activate young voters through social media engagement. The fledgling program was created and sponsored by Dominican University, a voter education partner for the Commission on Presidential Debates.

Democracy in Action

In early June, 117 students from 86 colleges across all 50 states travelled to Dominican’s California campus for two days of delegate training. There, they learned how to organize issue-focused political events at their schools. Throughout the summer, they used the hashtag #collegedebate16 to facilitate conversations over social media about the issues that matter most to youth voters.

By the time the students returned to Dominican for the College Convention in September, they were educated on their demographic and inspired to take action. The entire process was a lesson in democracy:

• First, delegates used Facebook data to generate a list of youth voter concerns.
• They then identified their top five issues through a caucus-style elimination process. The winners? Education, immigration, foreign policy, social justice, and the economy.
• Groups of delegates circulated through all five issues, turning topics into questions. Each group helped to develop a different stage, brainstorming subtopics for one, drafting questions for another, and so on.

 “I took a lot away about how the structure, the way you set things up, is going to result in different questions,” says Porter.

He also worked to ensure that the questions themselves were democratic. “My self-assumed role was to push to make sure we were asking non-partisan questions. And that was hard for us to do, because most people were left-leaning,” Porter explains.

At the culminating event, a town hall, delegates voted to send a finalized list of six questions to the moderators of the presidential debates. Although none of these questions were used in the first debate, moderator Lester Holt raised issues that echoed many of the delegates’ concerns.

Unfortunately, laments Porter, the presidential candidates seemed to spend more time insulting each other than engaging with the issues.

“Instead of learning about what the candidates were saying, it became a slug-fest, and almost an artificial venue,” he says. “When is [a president] ever going to be in a situation where their job is to out-insult their opponent?”

Energizing the Millennial Electorate

While the maturing Millennial population (b. 1981-1997) composes roughly 31% of the general electorate, less than 40% of 18-24 year olds currently vote.

“It’s almost like a self-fulfilling prophecy,” says Porter. “Because voters don’t vote, political parties don’t pay attention to young voters.”

Unsurprisingly, this dismissal is mutual.

“For many college students, the incentives to get involved are being outweighed by our immediate concerns,” he explains. “It’s a feeling of, what am I going to do? Start a voter drive, or study for my econ exam?”

But at College Debate 2016, Porter glimpsed a path beyond apathy. With excitement in his voice, he describes his experience as an exercise in communal empowerment:

“When we got all these kids [together] from across the country, the level of enthusiasm was like nothing I’ve ever seen before. Everyone could connect on a common cause, and that opened doors to talking to people very easily. This is cool, let’s activate, let’s be political.”

Unplug to Engage

While College Debate focused on engagement through social media, Porter maintains that face-to-face connections yield the highest return on voter engagement. “I was able to see how political activism can gain traction once you create a community where getting involved becomes a social expectation. That’s how I think politics happens: you and your friends,” he explains.

And to Millennials who are still skeptical about getting engaged, Porter offers this advice: “Give it a chance! You never know when you’re going to stumble across someone that you have a really awesome conversation with, and that enthusiasm can trickle around. Those are the types of conversations that are missing among young voters.”