North Carolina is a divisive state in the political battleground. As a swing state, the votes cast and policies enacted here affect the entire country. So it seems weird, then, that any seat in the North Carolina State Legislature would go uncontested. The sheer fact that a seat in this legislature allows the holder to create and refine not only a state’s laws, but indirectly the entire nation’s laws, would make it seem that the 170 seats in our state legislature would be some of hardest seats to sit down in. But this is not the case. Currently, just under a third of the seats in the North Carolina general assembly will be uncontested in the 2016 election. Today, it’s almost harder to sit in a seat in a furniture store than it is to sit in the State Legislature — this is a gross failure in our state.
Today, there are many things making this year’s election one of the most uncontested in our state’s history. Our state is so gerrymandered that, in a skewed district, one party chooses not to run a candidate because it knows there’s no chance the other party can be beaten. The fact that we only pay our state legislatures $13,951 a year is outrageous. But, perhaps the most unmentioned cause of this lack of politicians stems from recently graduated, young adults who simply don’t want to run for public office.
There was a time when serving in public office was seen as a noble affair, a great contribution to the public good and even a moral duty. Today, however, while the job remains largely the same, serving in public office is viewed in a far more negative light. From partisan politics to negative media coverage and political scandals to government shutdowns, so many things have created this negative image. The question then, is not what has caused politics’ negative public image, but how to reverse it. Perhaps the first place to start is to begin convincing young adults, who will soon be of age to run for public office, that politicians are not the Frank Underwoods of the world, but committed citizens striving to make their constituents’ lives better.
Doing so is no easy task. Giving youth the impression that their vote is actually wanted by placing voting locations on college campuses and allowing youth to use their college IDs to vote is one way to start. Introducing youth to a positive view of politics at a young age fosters a connection and affection for it as they grow older. This change must be made soon since if we don’t, there may come a time in the near future where seats in our state legislature are not just being uncontested, but are sitting empty altogether.