Fall River's young voters pull away from the polls

By Julianne Earle

The young voters in the city of Fall River are slowly disappearing from the voting booths, and some voters are attributing that to ignorance.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the nation has seen a steady decline in the number of voters in the 18-24 age range since 1964, and the group has consistently had the lowest participation rate, dropping from 50.9 percent in 1964 to 38.0 percent in 2012.

Fall River native, Ashley Alves, 21, is a nursing student at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, and said that she is not registered to vote, and has never participated in an election.

“I never registered to vote because I really don’t have the time to listen to debates and make an informed decision about it,” Alves said.

Like Alves, another Fall River local, Emily Dyer, 20, is an English major at the University of Maine at Orono, and said she has never participated in any local elections, only the presidential elections.

“I only vote in presidential elections because I believe I can gather the information I need to make an informed decision that I think will benefit the country,” Dyer said.

Dyer also said she has only requested one absentee ballot, and it was only for the presidential election.

“I only did an absentee ballot for the presidential elections because I was away at school, and when the city elections take place, I don’t know anything about the candidates, so I don’t vote,” Dyer said.

This trend is relatively wide spread, as younger voters between the ages of 18-29 reported a net voting decrease of approximately 1.8 million, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

However, Blaine Honohan, 21, of Fall River, commutes to Stonehill College, and says he is registered to vote and participated in the Fall River primaries, and plans to vote in the general election in November.

“I vote because I want to be sure that where I live is run by the best people possible, because policies that local politicians make can impact my daily life,” Honohan said.

 Honohan said that he has seen a decrease in the number of young people voting in the local elections, and attributes it to laziness.

“They’re lazy, and they don’t think it’s important, but many of them don’t understand is that our voice is the future,” Honohan said.

Amy Marques, 21, also of Fall River, is a law student at the University of Massachusetts School of Law, and stated that she has participated in all elections because she feels that it is a civic duty that should not be ignored.

“The right to vote isn’t available to people in every nation, so it’s my responsibility to be informed and vote,” Marques said.

Marques also said that most young voters are not as well informed as they should be, which is why they are not as active in the polls.

“They feel like they don’t know enough to vote,” Marques said.

The Fall River Elections Office does not record the statistics of young people actively voting in the polls, but Chairperson of the Fall River Board of Election Commissioners, Elizabeth Camara, reported that the number of absentee ballots is decreasing.

“We sent out 460 ballots but only 348 were returned. I can’t say I see a lot of young people out in the polls either, but we don’t keep track,” Camara said.

Amanda Tavares, 21, of Fall River is an Engineering major at Roger Williams University in Rhode Island, and said that she, like many other youth, is not registered to vote and attributes it to laziness.

“Most people are just lazy, like me, or they just don’t care because they don’t think their lives will be affected that greatly if they don’t vote,” Tavares said.