I’ve seen so much millennial hate lately. It seems to be everywhere: newspaper articles, on television roundtables, even on the radio. The stereotype of  individuals aged 14 to 30 is that we are weak, lazy, self-absorbed and technology-obsessed. According to the pundits, we are not going to be able to shoulder the mantle of human progress.

Ouch. Those charges rankle, but I believe voting is an opportunity to prove most, if not all, of these stereotypes wrong. Unfortunately, our current track record seems to do the opposite. I was dismayed by data released in April by the Harvard University Institute of Politics, which stated that less than one in every four millennials “definitely” planned on casting a ballot this fall election.

Voting might seem like a complicated process, but we’re without excuse. Using Google, I searched for “voting information Ohio,” and almost every necessary piece of information about how and where to cast my vote was readily available, as well as a list of the candidates running for office. With the advent of various Internet resources specifically designed to inform voters about how and where to vote, it has never been easier to get involved in choosing the way we want our country to function.

It is certainly very frustrating for me when it seems like our representatives can never accomplish anything due to partisan deadlock, huge monetary donations and that nagging reelection campaign for House of Representatives members. To refer again to the Harvard poll, many individuals said they were not interested in voting because politicians never seemed to be concerned about issues that mattered to them, like wealth disparity and that looming tower, student debt.

While the urge to withdraw is somewhat compelling, I believe the answer is not to become more apathetic about government. This is the government we have, for better or worse, and change must come from a combination of outside and inside pressures. It is hard for me to see a politician responding to the concerns of people who did not vote at all.  We need to demand more of our candidates, asking them to back up their claims with clear logic and veracity, and the first way our generation insists upon that is by showing candidates that we matter and that we are involved by using our vote.

  I encourage those students from outside of Ohio who wish to vote in their home state to go to longdistancevoter.org. Verify your voter registration if this is your first time voting, and then order your absentee ballot as soon as possible. Long Distance Voter is a non-profit organization dedicated to facilitating this process.

Election Day is next Tuesday, Nov. 4. 

Gabi Healy ’18 is undeclared from Fairhaven, Mass. She can be reached at healyg@kenyon.edu.