Voter apathy and some other stuff

In my Journalism class I volunteered for a group that had a vague idea about doing a story about the election. We then narrowed it down to something relevent to people our age -- the hordes of teenage voters who don't care to vote. So last night I did some second to last minute research (the story is due tomorrow).

"The chief reason that young voters give for not voting is that they think nobody is listening to them," said Jack Doppelt, author of Nonvoters : America's No-Shows and associate professor of journalism at Northwestern University. "And coupled with that, they don't think politicians come through on what they say."
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Heh... I can't guess where they get that idea (sarcasm).

Young voters themselves have used these popular excuses for not voting: too lazy to go to the polls, one vote doesn’t matter and that politicians are all the same. Other young people say they just don’t have enough information to decide.
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The problem with this type of reasoning is that more and more young people are convinced that voting is a choice rather than an obligation or a responsibility. In truth, voting is everyone’s civic obligation.
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It is not as though America’s youth is not interested or caring. Statistics show that civic participation in young Americans grows every year. Perhaps "voter apathy" is not the right term for what is occurring in American politics. Young voters are passionate about issues that effect their lives, but don’t believe that their vote counts or that all politicians are the same. Presidential hopefuls tell young voters that by voting, they can change not only who is in office, but also laws that affect everyone.

Close call instances:
* Women won the right to vote in 1920 by passage of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution. Tennessee, the last state needed to pass the amendment, ratified the amendment by one vote.

* John Kennedy won the Presidency in 1960 by just over 100,000 votes.

* Woodrow Wilson was elected President in 1916 by carrying one state by less than one vote per precinct.

*In 1950, a State Senator in Maryland was elected by one vote. The winner had 3,080. The loser had 3,079.

* Thomas Jefferson was elected President by one electoral vote in 1800.

*The 1839 Governor of Massachusetts, Marcus Monton, was elected by one vote
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Heh. Yeah, I have nothing else to work with right now for a topic. Other than, say, Spirit Week and my lack of school spirit. But, I'm going to bite my tongue on that, and move on to something else loosely related to the above topic. A quote. A quote from Joe.

Joe: according to jessie randle, Erika joyner is stupid and knows nothing, I want everyone to believe Bush is God, and Lauren uses the Bible as her defense for everything.......and what dp we all have in common
Joe: mr snidmans class and the only bush supporters

Dude, when you go on a message board and say "If we give George W. Bush full dictator authority I don't see any bad that can come of it", people are gonna think you believe the man is infallable. I bet he's no longer foaming at the mouth at the post-RNC polls now, too.

Sometimes if people draw a conclusion its based on how you act or what you say. I can't speak for the comments about the other two people, though.