While I echo Steve McCoy’s sentiments that more young voters should feel encouraged to participate in elections (“Poor turnout by young voters,” March 23), I’m growing tired of the narrative that “young people don’t vote.”
Especially because it isn’t true, at least for Generation Z.
By and large, Gen Z voters like me are some of the most politically engaged voters in recorded history. The first election in which Gen Z was old enough to account for the entire 18-to-24-year-old voting bloc was the 2022 midterm, and nearly 30% of eligible Gen Z voters cast a ballot. This is an unprecedented number for a midterm and a significantly higher rate than what past generations — including millennials, Gen X and boomers — cast at that age.
Before we write off young people as “not voting,” let’s look at what the data is telling us.
Nearly 50% of young voters under 30 cast a ballot in the 2020 presidential election, one of the highest recorded participation rates, and 11 percentage points higher than in 2016. Granted, only a handful of Gen Z voters were eligible to vote: The oldest members of Gen Z are 27, and the youngest are 12, meaning 2024 marks the first time more than half of Gen Z is even eligible to vote. If voting trends for young voters continue, expect Gen Z turnout to be even higher this November.
It’s no surprise turnout was low on a noncompetitive primary ballot held after Super Tuesday. It’s always low.
Campaign promises made to young voters on the national and local levels historically haven’t come to fruition. The adage that “this is the most important election of our lifetime” rings hollow. For better or worse, young voters wanted to see real changes, not more excuses.
In Chicago, that means reducing the costs of living and entertainment in the city, improving public safety and producing more reliable public transit.
Gen Z will account for 41 million eligible voters in 2024, and I’d wager we pass our 30% midterm turnout. Candidates can’t afford to write us off this time, and they must make it worthwhile to vote.
While we’re often called the “entitled generation,” no candidate is “entitled” to our votes — they should earn it.
— Micky Horstman, Chicago
No wonder voters are apathetic
I am dismayed at the super-low turnout in our primary in which less than 20% of registered voters in Cook County bothered to cast their vote in the primary, despite the ease of mail-in ballots, early in-person voting, and even the ability to register and be eligible to vote on the day of the primary at the polling place.
Certainly, an almost total lack of candidates on the ballot in one party’s primary partially explains a low turnout. But how disappointing it is that the primary reason for the low turnout seems to be voter apathy and not voter suppression. What is even more concerning is the inability of Cook County to be able to count all the votes now a week after the election with such a low voter turnout and not yet being able to determine a winner in the state’s attorney’s primary race.
What chaos should we expect come November in the general election when turnout will likely be substantially higher? No wonder the people of Cook County have so little trust and faith in county government.
— Kurt Anstaett, Winnetka
Good riddance to McDaniel
I am glad that NBC News has decided not to add Ronna McDaniel to its roster of commentators. This is not censorship of conservatives but an acknowledgement that she is a liar, a cheat and a supporter of an attempt to overthrow the election. She has known all along that Joe Biden legitimately won the 2020 election, but she fought to promote the lie that Donald Trump won and described it as taking “one for the team,” as if in this circumstance what she did was normal and acceptable. It was not.
She has in a major way contributed to the malignant spread of disinformation about the safety of our elections and the fitness of Trump to, once again, become president of our country, a possibility that all the world’s democratic countries view with fear and dismay.
Once upon a time, I was a Republican but am disgusted by what this party has become. I admired Barack Obama and was repulsed by the way Republicans lied about him and treated him. And because I was aware of what a troubled person Trump is, I was horrified that he was elected president in 2016. The morning after that election, I woke up realizing that the America I knew, or thought I knew, was nonexistent. And my opinion of a large minority of my fellow citizens has gone downhill from there.
No, McDaniel will be forever tainted by her acquiescence to enthusiastically support Trump, a man she was well aware is an unrepentant racist, liar, cheat and flimflam man. She sold her soul to achieve power and success. Only, as always happens with Trump, to be dumped when he no longer found her useful.
She made her bed. Now she can join all the other fools who trusted him and sleep in it.
— Karen Evans, Glen Ellyn
McDaniel an election denier
I felt compelled to respond to letter writer Dan Schuchardt (“Uproar over Ronna McDaniel,” March 26), who finds it amusing that former “Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd and other liberal commentators were up in arms over the hiring of Ronna McDaniel, former chair of the Republican National Committee, as a paid contributor by NBC News. He suggests that it would be more interesting if major networks hired one or two conservative commentators to provide a little more objectivity to their analysis. Seriously? Objectivity from the likes of McDaniel?
I’m all for seeking out conservative Republican voices to provide some balance, but this is the woman who has spewed the lies of Donald Trump for years.
McDaniel is a longtime election denier, despite her about-face this past Sunday when she said Joe Biden won the 2020 election fairly. This is the same woman who pressured election officials not to certify the 2020 election in Trump’s fake elector scheme. This is the woman who claimed the election was “rigged” and trivialized the violent Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection by supporting the description of it as “legitimate political discourse.” This woman lost all credibility when in 2020, as head of the RNC, she declined to produce a platform and instead pledged to support the Trump agenda, whatever that might be.
Our democracy is teetering on the edge because of the lies people like McDaniel have been pushing on the country for years now.
— Tom Scorby, St. Charles
Why allow media stars a say?
MSNBC is owned by NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is a network with a liberal bias.
I do not care if it is liberal or conservative; I do not watch that channel. However, I don’t understand how the media personalities who work there get to dictate who gets hired and who gets fired, such as Ronna McDaniel. Where are the bosses who are in charge? Aren’t they the ones who should be making decisions? I cannot fathom that the media “stars” get to make that call.
The liberal media feel their opinions are gospel and woe to those who disagree. What a shame!
— Kathleen Janessa, Skokie
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