Writing for Teen Vogue this Thursday, Lauren Young tells the story of Sudhanshu Kaushik, who wanted to cast his 2020 election vote in his adoptive hometown of New York City.
Kaushik needed to change his Alabama ID to an New York ID in order to vote in the state, but when he tried to make an appointment with the DMV, there wasn't an available slot until almost two weeks out from the election.
"Once he had a New York ID, Kaushik could use New York’s online registration portal, until October 9. Like other New Yorkers, he also had until October 9 to register to vote in person or send in his registration by mail, but, he said, 'you never know with the USPS.' Kaushik thought he might be able to cast a mail ballot in his home state of Alabama as a backup, but because he intends to stay in New York for the foreseeable future, he is now considered a New York resident and can no longer do so," Young writes.
According to Young, Kaushik is one of many young voters across the U.S. who are dealing with the country's "underfunded and overly complicated election infrastructure, the existing difficulties faced by its youngest voters, and the changes imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic."
Rock the Vote executive director Carolyn DeWitt tells Young that the country's complex maze of voting requirements and deadlines are causing young voters to often fail to turn out, sometimes at rates 20 to 30 percentage points below older voters.
DeWitt says process of voting is “very archaic,” and one “that we as a democracy have not invested in, that looks nothing like what’s around our daily lives, and is often designed to keep [young voters] out.”
Read the full piece over at Teen Vogue.
