The Young Democrats of North Carolina spent several hours lobbying the N.C. legislature Wednesday hoping to draw the attention of N.C. representatives to political issues that concern young adults ages 18 to 35.
In attendance and participating throughout the day were young people and Democrats from across the state, including a group of N.C. State students from College Democrats.
The committee of YDNC Day at the Legislature, which in charge of planning the event, created a short, streamlined list of concerns to focus on, which it hoped would help facilitate political action.
“Today, the 40 young Democrats who have gathered, representing organizations from across the state, will be lobbying for three things,” Tony McEwen, president of the YDNC, said. “We are advocating placing a freeze on college tuition, in-person, same day voter registration, and a disinvestment from the Sudanese government and businesses, which have, according to the United Nations and the U.S. government, been funding the Janjaweed genocide in Darfur.”
While there is not a bill before the N.C. Congress advocating a freeze in college tuition, the Congress has recently introduced bills to the legislature supporting in-person voter registration and the divestment from the Sudanese government, according to McEwen. House bill 91 advocates in-person registration and voting at one-stop absentee voting sites. House bill 291 is concerned with the divestment from the Sudanese government, McEwen said.
According to Melissa Price, the YDNC women’s caucus chair, the issue of securing in-person registration is especially important for the YDNC and College Democrats.
“In North Carolina, the percentage of voter turnout in the youth population has been disappointingly low — 38 percent at the last election,” Price said. “In states that have same-day registration, the turnout was as high as 56 percent. We believe that establishing same-day registration in North Carolina would tear down the wall that impedes young people’s representation.”
According to Price, young people 18 to 35 are statistically more mobile because of frequent changes in schools or jobs. Many people do not know that they must register again when they move. So the state’s current voter registration system, which requires that people register these changes far in advance, works against them.
“When talking to students in the Brickyard during the last election, I found that many of them had missed the opportunity to register to vote,” Laura De Castro, a junior in political science and president of the College Democrats of North Carolina, said. “No one has a home phone anymore. We are more mobile and less easy to contact to remind about registration. Young people are being disenfranchised of their right to vote by the system.”
After the day of lobbying, McEwen expressed positive results.
“I feel a lot better. We received some additional cosponsors on the bill. At this point we have 24, and I think after today we will have closer to 30,” McEwen said. “Unfortunately we did not get a lot of response addressing the topic of placing a freeze on college tuition, but we are completely confident that House Bill 91 will pass in the House and pretty confident that it will pass in the Senate. But we know our work is not done.”
