You're listening to Comedy Central. Wow, that's a lot that we don't know about the twenty twenty four election, like who the candidates will be, or which campaign fatal or work is gonna lose. But as someone who headed up youth issues at the White House, I can tell you that if history is any indicator, we already know what one of the big talking points is going to be every election. It's like, Oh, the young people are coming, and people are coming, and usually they don't come. They
just don't show up. Are you hearing me? Nieces? I was having this conversation to night. So this convention was not there in their twenties, was not made for us. We didn't, I think, because you don't vote. Yeah, because you don't vote, never ever vote. Why would people cater to you if you never come out. Sorry not to be annoying, but we're with NBC News and I'm just trying to figure out anybody you're going to vote an
election on November sixth, anybody, anybody, nobody's gonna vote. What can get younger voters to actually turn out to vote, you know, out for what he got you? Yeah? Well, young people aren't going to be voting Now, the point is the media loves to whine about young people not voting, but what gets much less attention is that the establishment feels so threatened by the power of young voters that
they actually try to get them to not vote. To many the establishment, low youth turnout is not a problem, it's a goal. And that's what I want to talk about in the latest installment of Long Story Short. Let's say that a political party wants to suppress the youth vote. What are some things they might try to do. Their best bet is to put restrictions on college students, because for the most part, they're all young, except for that one guy who used to sit in the back of
your sociology electric What was this deal? Was that like an inspiring thing or like a twenty one Jump Street situation? Anyway, one thing that they try to do is to target student IDs. In some states, you can't use a school idea to vote, even though for a lot of students it's the only thing showing that they live in the states. And don't tell me that they aren't legitimate residents. Okay, college students pay local taxes for four years, and the
dumb ones up to six. One of those states is Texas, where you can't use your student ID to vote, but you can use your gun permit, which sure feels like a law made by Republicans to make it easier for other Republicans to vote. It's basically like a liberal state letting you vote if you still wear your COVID mask. Another thing they try to do is move voting booths off campuses. Now, this is a big deal for college students,
since they're less likely to have a car. If they do know someone with a car, it's usually that like kind of hop but sort of sketch dude with a two thousand and seven Subaru that reeks of weed and all the seatbelts are missing, and it's just like, is voting for state Assembly really worth getting car herpies. When it comes to trying to make polling places inaccessible, the state of Texas is also at the forefront. Texas Republicans are pushing a bill that would ban voting booths from
every campus across the states. Voting rights advocates are slamming, and Texas lawmakers plan to remove polling places from college campuses. A young voters favored Democrats by nearly a thirty point margin in the midterms. But the Republican who is behind this proposal tells ABC thirteens of Brianna Connor, it is not about that. Republican state representative Carrie Isaac says, it's a matter of school safety. I don't believe it's wise that we invite people onto our campuses that would not
otherwise be there. Texas Southern University freshman Jordan Jones points out that public universities like TSU already have open campuses. Our library, that's literally right there is azo public Anybody can go in there and use it, So I feel like this shouldn't be much of a difference whenever it comes to voting. She has a good point the libraries already open to the public, although knowing Texas Republicans that other ladies just going to be like this student is right,
we should also ban libraries. I realize, thanks you, I realized that. So far I've given you Republican examples. But to be fair, that doesn't mean all voter suppression is committed by Republicans, just like ninety eight percent of it.
But there are Democrats who do engage in voter suppression, and I know this from personal experience during the Democratic primary in two thousand and seven, I lobbied a local election board in North Carolina that wanted to remove voting machines from a campus where there were a lot of Obama Democrats and send those machines to a wealthy suburb where there were a lot of non Obama Democrats. Although
that's obviously not how they put it. They were just like, Okay, we're doing this because college students are just less likely to vote than people in the suburbs. And then I was like, oh, well, maybe college students don't vote because you keep taking their voting machines away, and then I lost. Sorry. While those are some of the more common obstacles that you might encounter as a young voter, it can get
a lot more creative. Welcome to North Carolina A and T. It's the largest historically black college in the country and a big Democratic voting block. But when you look at a congressional map, A and T looks like two separate colleges. It's split between District six and District thirteen. So if you move from this dorm over to that dorm, you're in a different district with different representatives and a different polling place. By splitting the campus into two separate congressional districts,
it diluted the power of ant's collective voice. So what was once one congressional district with an African American representative, it is now two congressional districts with two white Republican legislators. Have you seen people discourage from voting because of this? Not only do you get discouragement, there's also not wanting to register at all. It validates and affirms what young folks are saying when they say that their votes don't count. Yeah,
that's a bummer. And honestly, I haven't seen college students that disappointed since they saw me in Van Wilder two. In my defense, in my defense, that movie paid very well. Yeah, but look, this is the point of it. All of this is meant to freeze you out of the process and discourage you from participating. And I get it. It's easy as a young person to get demoralized and super high. I'm not sure why I mentioned that. Sorry, to be
more clear, things are not hopeless. You know that jerrymandering at A and T, Well, it sparked a student revolt and after a court order, reunified the school students there are now voting in record numbers. Now great, and it's not just that. It's not just that despite all of those barriers, young voters have shown up big in recent elections. In fact, last year they may have made all the difference the gen Zers millennials. They're now voting in record numbers.
Gen Z voters, people born in nineteen ninety seven and later are lapping their older millennial counterparts. And I know a lot of people talk about young people talking about being engaged, but not being engaged. We are seeing engagement. The energy from these young folks is real. They all but canceled out the votes of their grandparents, of senior citizens, who are some of the most reliable voters out there and also some of the most Republican voters out there.
If not for young people, we have a starkly different result. We saw not a red wave, we didn't see a blue wave, but we certainly saw a young voter gen Z wave, a gen Z wave, not a red wave, not a blue wave, not a millennial pain wave. So remember when I said the establishment feels threatened by you, Well, that's because when you vote, you often get a lot of the things to happen, marriage equality, climate action, and yes, we decriminalization. It's young people who overwhelmingly pushed to get
this stuff done, so keep it up. Don't let them make you feel complacent, because long story short, you're powerful and that's why they're scared of you, So go make them scared. Explore more shows from the Daily Show podcast universe by searching The Daily Show wherever you get your podcast. Watch The Daily Show weeknights and eleven ten Central Low, Comedy Central, and stream Flue episodes anytime on Fairmount Bloks. This has been a Comedy Central podcast. Wow.