Portrait of a (non?) voter…

Meet Rachel. She’s 22, a college graduate, and is a successful customer service supervisor. She lives on her own and has a fabulous car and 2 fabulous dogs. She’s young, hip…and she has never voted in an election.

In the course of our reporting, we talk to a lot of people who get really excited to vote, so I thought I would explore politics through the eyes of a non-voter. I sat down with Rachel to discuss if non-voting is a choice, a lifestyle, or just a task that gets overlooked….

K: Have you ever voted before?

R: No. Um...I’ve never gotten around to it. I’ve lived in a couple of different states, so there’s registering to vote, and then I got married, and my license didn’t match my legal name, there’s just a bunch of different reasons, I guess.

K: Did you find it hard to register to vote?

R: Well, basically my license and my last name didn’t match, so they said I couldn’t do it [register.] It would have been really easy because that was down at the farmers’ market. But since that didn’t happen they said, “You have to have a piece of mail” or something...I don’t know, and obviously I don’t carry a piece of mail with me [to prove identity and address.] It was just somebody random asking me if I wanted to register. 

K: Do you think you’ll vote this year?

R: Probably not. I don’t know. I really wanted to this year. I definitely think I would have voted if Hillary [Clinton] would have been in there.

K: Do you usually pay attention to politics?

R: Sort of. A lot of it doesn’t really interest me. I know it’s horrible, everyone tells me I should vote. (Smiles.) You know, I’ve had the conversation with my mom before, she says, “you really need to vote.” Then of course, I just say, “one vote isn’t going to matter.”

K: It’s not horrible…but are you opposed to voting?

R: Oh no..no no.

K: Do you think there’s an issue out there that would make you want to vote?

R: Maybe. I really don’t like to watch the news, and that’s obviously where stuff happens, so I’m not really informed on different issues and what’s happening.

K: Do you think the outcome of an election, specifically, this presidential election will affect you personally?

R: In some areas, but I don’t know how it would. But of course there are issues that I feel strongly about, so I’d want somebody who has the same values as I do.

K: Did you find anything interesting about this past primary season?

R: The different kinds of people running were more interesting than it usually is. A woman! I do know that some of my friends do vote, but it’s not something we’d, you know…talk about.

K: Do you think you’d be motivated by rockstars or celebrities urging you to vote…like P. Diddy and his campaign in 2004?

R: No. (laughs) I didn’t even know he did that. It’s kinda funny, but no.

K: If you did feel like you wanted to get some information about a candidate, do you think you could find it out there?

R: Yeah, but it’s not always the correct information. I’m sure you could look up tons of opinions on what people say and what they accidentally say. I always hear that on the radio and stuff…like so-and-so accidentally said that he…you know…whatever.

(Rachel’s clever reference to the Jesse Jackson/Barack Obama slip up this week led me to believe she’s paying more attention than she lets on. Or it could be all of the flat screen TVs at her office that show CNN and Fox News all day. She can’t not walk by and not see the news tickers on the tube.)

K: What are your impressions of politics in general?

R: Maybe if I had more time to get into it, but I just also have this thing about watching the news. I don’t really like seeing depressing stuff. So, that’s why I don’t watch it. Because things that are out there, or things that are interesting are not usually things that are upbeat, or things that I want to hear. You hear more of the trash-talking, and “this is why you shouldn’t like someone or vote for someone. I always see those commercials (political ads) where it says, “This person did this!” or “Paid for by the friends of blah-blah-blah.” Whatever. They always have those commercials, and they’re always the same.

K: When we talk about elections, what comes into your mind?

R: It’s something that being an adult it’s something I should take an interest in.  But I guess it’s just getting motivated to do it. Sometimes when I think, “How’s it going to affect me?” and you get to thinking about how many other millions of people there are and what is it going to do if you vote…? It’s not that I’m like, “I will never vote..” and I’m not even saying that I don’t think I’ll ever matter, but I just haven’t paid attention…yet. I really was going to vote in this election…but I didn’t even pay attention to when we actually vote (grins.)

K: If someone approached you on the street to register to vote, do you think you would?

R: Yeah, now because my name’s the same on my license! But yes,  and then actually I probably would go vote, then. If we had the day off of work…because last year, we didn’t!

You heard it here first, folks. Rachel will register to vote! She may not run away from the clipboard toting volunteers she sees at the farmers market this fall. Hopefully she can find other ways to be an informed voter other than just watching the news. (How about www.streetteam08.com?)

And just in case you’re looking to register and you don’t happen to run into someone who asks you to, you can always go to Declare Yourself and get signed up. (http://declareyourself.com/)