A study of 6 million people ages 18-24 from the Midwest showed37 percent were registered to vote and actually voted, the Indianastate supreme court clerk said Friday.
David Lewis, who is a Ball State graduate, is the second blackman to serve as state supreme court clerk. Lewis has worked forGov. Joe Kernan for six years and has served as Sen. Evan Bayh'sregional director for central Indiana.
"There are three main reasons why your age group doesn't vote,"Lewis said. "They say they're too busy, they ran out of time andthey feel they're vote doesn't count."
Lewis demonstrated why everyone 18 and over should vote by usingmembers of the audience. He had three students write a main concernabout the government down on a piece of paper. Lewis had the firststudent say aloud what his concern was. He then had the other twostudents hand him their pieces of paper and ripped them up.
"They should be upset that I ripped their papers up because theyhad something to say and they didn't get to say it," Lewissaid.
Lewis said that this is the way voting works. Most people havesomething to say about the government, but they never take theinitiative to vote and make changes, he said.
"If you don't vote, why should they listen to you?" Lewissaid.
Jenny Sarabia, the founding executive director of the Indianastate government's Hispanic Commission, also spoke about why votingis important for minorities.
"Your vote affects an entire population, because there arepeople suffering in third-world countries, and you are the elite,"Sarabia said.
Sarabia, whose father came to America illegally, was elected tobe a state delegate and go to the Democratic Convention.
"Be the squeaky wheel, because the squeaky wheel is the one thatgets oiled," Sarabia said.
The United States has a 3.5 percent Latino population and onlyless than half of that are able to vote, Sarabia said. Sarabia alsosaid that crime is not going to end because then there will be manypeople without jobs.
"Be proactive and not reactive about every aspect of your life,"Sarabia said.
Although the percentage of voters in the age group of 18-24 hasincreased, Lewis said he felt that the awareness of voting needs tobe raised.
"I think that this is the beginning of a great turnout, and thisseminar was energizing and it explained the importance of voting,"Lewis said.
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