As far back as American election data goes, young people have always voted at lower rates than other groups. But in recent elections, young voters have gained noticeable ground between themselves and others.

At Fort Lewis College, 54% of eligible students voted in 2016. Four years later, 64% of eligible students voted, according to a report produced for the college by private research institution Tufts University based in the Greater Boston area.

The trends at FLC are in line with national averages recorded by Tufts, which says the average institutional voting rate rose from 53% in 2016 to 66% in 2020.

Turnout among young people is expected to swell again in 2024 with primaries already underway for a contentious presidential race. Thirty-three U.S. Senate seats and each of the 435 U.S. House seats are up for grabs in November, not to mention down ballot state and local elections around the country.

Tufts’ Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement’s pre-2024 presidential election poll shows 57% of respondents ages 18 to 34 said they are “extremely likely” to vote this year. Another 15% indicated they are “fairly likely” to cast a ballot in the presidential election.

FLC political science professor Paul DeBell said young voters have been captivated by a growing sense of importance and urgency in the face of myriad issues on local to global levels.

College-age people interviewed by The Durango Herald said climate change and environmental sustainability, women’s health and reproductive rights, protections for LGBTQ people and cost of living are issues motivating them to vote.

Some young people said they want President Joe Biden’s administration to pivot away from its full-throated support of Israel in the Israel-Hamas war and to push instead for a cease fire and increased humanitarian aid to Palestinians.

Broad issues that touch people’s everyday lives, such as access to housing, infrastructure and transportation, are also getting attention.

FLC student Samuel Hart, 20, voted in his first election last November in his hometown of Reno, Nevada.

He said he spent about an hour researching the local issues on the ballot. Housing and land rights were big issues.

Now, he’s registered to vote in Colorado and will be doing so in November. This time around, he’s focusing on climate change and affordable housing.

“Rent is so expensive in Durango,” he said.

Hart also said he cares about public transportation and improved infrastructure for cyclists.

“I don’t have a car,” he said. “… I think public transport needs to be improved. I mean, Durango does a good job on it. … Not nearly enough as other places.”

An 18-year-old FLC freshman from Boulder who identified herself as Mo said she still has a lot of research to do on state candidates and ballot measures, but protecting abortion access and trans rights are important to her.

“I’m pro-abortion,” she said. “Things that are happening in other states like Florida and Texas, I don’t know.”

She said she wants to preserve abortion and trans rights in Colorado. And although she doesn’t necessarily know who she will be voting for in state races, she is leaning toward the Democratic Party.

Mo said she became old enough to vote last November but she wasn’t able to get a ballot in time, so this year will be her first time voting in an election, something she is excited about.

She said she has wanted to vote in elections since she was 16 years old and it is important for her to get active now.

“I don’t want to say young people voting is more important than older people voting, but it’s really important for them to vote,” she said. “Because we are the generation that’s going to be here in the future and we need to make sure we’re building the world that we want.”

Not all young people feel motivated to vote, even if they have strong feelings about local issues.

Durango resident Lee Dean said she expects young people to turn out in large numbers this year, but she isn’t so sure they will favor Democratic or Republican candidates.

As of January, active unaffiliated voters made up 47% of registered active voters in Colorado. Of the 3.8 million registered active voters in the state, 1.8 million are unaffiliated. By comparison, Democrats and Republicans accounted for 27% and 24% of active voters, respectively, according to data from the Colorado Secretary of State. The remaining 2% represent third-party affiliations.

Dean is a member of the Durango Palestinian Solidarity Coalition, which has gathered at Buckley Park on Sundays to protest the Israel-Hamas war and recently ramped up calls to Durango City Council to join other municipalities across the country in calling for a cease fire.

“There’s more disillusionment within the Democratic Party,” she said. “Because of the lack of our voices being heard against the genocide in Gaza, (many people) are going to choose not to vote for Biden. I’m going to vote independent, and I do have a candidate in mind.”

She encourages other young voters to consider an independent or unaffiliated candidate, too.

She said she isn’t sure voting independently will have an impact on the presidential election – she considers the two-party system to essentially be a one-party system. But her own disillusionment with the Democratic Party has her more closely considering issues that hit closer to home.

“I’m going to invest a lot more time into the local and state positions and just doing a lot more research, which is something I haven’t done in the past,” she said.

For example, Dean said she is paying close attention to the district attorney’s race in La Plata County.

Student members of the FLC Political Science Club said people should keep in mind there are more to elections than presidential races.

Club member Jade Pruett said “everybody seems to hate the state of the presidential election,” but there are down-ballot races that stand to have a more immediate impact on people’s daily lives.

“Even if you’re dissuaded by the names at the top of the ballot, that shouldn’t dissuade you from voting entirely,” she said.

The Associated Students of Fort Lewis College (the student government body) and FLC Engage, formerly known as the Political Science Club, are ramping up education and community engagement efforts to encourage students to get involved in local government.

Pruett said she volunteered in the La Plata County Clerk’s Office during the 2020 election, and the experience opened her eyes to how important local races are.

She said there’s a lot of “hubbub” about the upcoming presidential election, but local officials have to answer to their constituents whom they share their communities with. Voters have a much higher chance of working with their local elected leaders and making a meaningful connection with them versus someone like the president.

“You’re really connected to those people. And understanding that and like, valuing that I think is really important,” she said.

FLC Engage Vice President Wyatt Bair said being a college student unfamiliar with the political landscape can make elections and politics seem “terrifying” and that one’s voice doesn’t matter, particularly for huge elections like the presidential race.

After all, if an election is decided by 10,000 votes in a swing state, which Colorado is not, it can be hard to see how one makes a difference with their vote.

But even students at a small campus like FLC, which enrolled about 3,320 undergraduate students in fall 2023, can make or break local races.

“Organize 10 people, take them to a City Council meeting and say, ‘Hey, we want action on this issue.’ And because it’s a local issue, we’re going to make some change there,” Bear said.

Bear pointed to the upcoming district attorney race as another example. Many students probably aren’t that concerned about how they could be the next district attorney, but the outcome of that election would affect them as students.

“We’re 3,000 (people). We don’t really swing national elections, but we can absolutely swing a district attorney election,” he said. “We can swing another tight Colorado 3rd congressional race. If it’s as close as it was last election, we can swing a senate district race where a student candidate is running for that seat right now.”

He said FLC Engage’s mission is to empower the voters of FLC with the message, “The political world seems big, scary, confusing, but we have way more leverage than we give ourselves credit for and we should use that.”

cburney@durangoherald.com

A previous version of this story incorrectly identified the last names of FLC Engage students Wyatt Bair and Jade Pruett.