Y Gen Out Loud » Voting

Gen Y gearing up for 2012 election

Tamara Bell — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 12:37:41 +0000

As we prepare to celebrate our country’s 235th birthday, and with the 2012 election season just months away, it’s never too early to gear up for participation in one of our fundamental rights.

Chris Copsey, the Director of Legislative Research with Project Vote Smart, a nonprofit online resource for information about presidential, statewide, congressional and state legislative races, joins Keeping Up with Gen Y to talk about how Gen Y need to start researching candidates and issues now to be informed participants in the 2012 election. He also discusses how voting is an enviable right that Gen Y should exercise at every opportunity and at all levels of government.

MORE ABOUT CHRIS COPSEY

Chris Copsey, Director of Legislative Research, Project Vote Smart

Chris Copsey is the Director of Legislative Research with Project Vote Smart, a nonprofit online resource for information about national and state level races. Since January, the nonprofit organization splits its services between two locations: the University of Southern California and The University of Texas at Austin.

A graduate of Ball State University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and History, Chris spent a year doing postgraduate work at the University of Sheffield in England before coming to Project Vote Smart in summer 2009, working in their Montana office as a legislative research associate. In January, he began managing the program in Austin, which houses the Key Votes Program.

You can listen to the show below or you can download it as a podcast from our iTunes page. And you can still find us on WomensRadio.

Gen Y in the voting years

Tamara Bell — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 15:45:00 +0000

In November, only 20 percent of young voters turned out for the midterm elections. This was disappointing in wake of the “youth quake” of 2008 that dominated news coverage and helped carry President Obama into office.

But does that mean Gen Y’s love affair with politics has waned? Professor Krista Jenkins, an Associate Professor of Political Science at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Madison, N.J., will help us understand what the drop-off in voting means for civic participation among Gen Y in 2011.

Professor Jenkins joins Keeping Up with Gen Y to explain how democracy is designed to move slowly, and that young people need to temper expectations for quick change to national policies, despite what politicians say. And for candidates in 2012, she cautions against lecturing instead of listening to young voters who may just hold your electoral future in their hands.

More about Krista Jenkins, Ph.D.

Dr. Krista Jenkins, Political Science at Fairleigh Dickinson University

Krista Jenkins is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Madison, N.J. Professor Jenkins has authored articles on gender and politics and is co-author of A New Engagement? Political Participation, Civic Life, and the Changing American Citizen, a book that examines generational differences in political attitudes and participation with a specific emphasis on Generation Y. She’s currently working on a book that, based on interviews with mothers and daughters, examines how different generations of women understand women’s status, opportunities, and limitations in the post-women’s movement.

A native of Southern California, Professor Jenkins graduated from UCLA and received her doctorate from Rutgers.

You can listen to the show below. And check out our Page on WomensRadio Network for more information about the show and our guests.

The Gen Y vote in 2010 elections

Briana Conner — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 16:59:29 +0000

Generation Y turned out for the 2008 elections at a rate that was only surpassed by the 1972 election in which 18 year olds could vote for the first time. Will they make an impact in the 2010 midterm elections? Y Gen TV reporter Briana Conner looks at what state governments are doing to attract young voters to the polls in November.

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