Getting ready to cast her first vote, 19-year-old Elizabeth Jimenez considers all that’s at stake in her choice of president: the tanking economy in which she’ll start her career. The dwindling medical benefits that support her bedridden sister. The failed promise of immigration reform to help her Mexican-born father.
“It’s so much bigger than myself,” said the sophomore at College of the Sequoias in Visalia, Calif.
Newspaper headlines promise layoffs and record the death toll in wars where Jimenez has friends and a cousin. The pressure of keeping her 10-person household afloat threatens her goal of becoming a doctor. The din in the living room where she sleeps and studies makes it hard to do homework.
But in spite of the deep uncertainty facing those just starting out in life, young, first-time voters interviewed across the country are eager to participate. Yes, times are tough, they say, but casting a ballot is an act of hope, a bet on a better future.
“America’s always been the place where dreams come true,” says Jimenez, who will be the first in her immigrant family to vote. “Our votes can add up. Make sure it stays that way.”
The political debut Tuesday for young voters comes in an election already marked by historical firsts.
Young voters have broken turnout records.
They doubled and, in some cases, tripled their presence in caucuses such as Iowa, energized by the contest deciding whether, for the first time, a woman or a black candidate became the Democratic nominee. They responded to intensive youth outreach from Republican and Democratic campaigns by volunteering, and used social networks to amplify their own opinions.
