IN 1998, there were 244 Amherst College students registered to vote in Massachusetts. Voting is, after all, the chance to exercise our most fundamental right as citizens. And students aren't even interested in picking the leaders that carry out those laws. The 2000 Presidential Election will be the first time that most of us get to exercise our right to vote for the President of the United States. It seems odd that most of America's youth readily anticipate their eighteenth birthday, yet after finally gaining the right to vote, decide not to participate.
Many experts point to voter apathy as at least a part of the cause of low voter turnout.
Students feel that it does not matter which candidate becomes president because no matter who gets elected, the politician's policies won't have any real effect in their lives. Also, many students do not see how their vote makes all that much difference. Admittedly, it is hard to conceive that one vote will have a direct effect in the wake of the millions of ballots cast across the country. However the college student vote as a block, does matter. If every college student voted, it would have enough impact to give either Gore or Bush the edge in their tight race, or give Green Party candidate Ralph Nader that extra push to get his five percent of the popular vote, enabling his party to receive Federal Election Campaign funding in the 2004 election.