When it comes to politics, 2020 has been a year of firsts for me. 

I met a candidate running for office for the first time.

I attended and helped out on a caucus for the first time. 

I volunteered for a campaign for the first time. 

I interned for a campaign for the first time. 

I phone banked and text banked and friend banked and did all the other types of bank for the first time.

I voted in a general election for the first time.

I’m not going to lie to you and say it wasn’t stressful. I’m new to all of this, so I was worried I would mess something up. I felt overwhelmed and stretched far too thin. Sometimes, I wanted to quit — to throw in the towel and let the older, more experienced voters take over.

But that’s not going to fly this year. It’s unfortunate, but for many of us, our first general election may be one of the most important ones of our lives. A lot is at stake this year — the health of our nation, the rights of our BIPOC siblings and the future of our environment.

Our future is on the ballot, and it’s our duty to do our part. 

Statistically, people aged 18 to 24 are the least politically engaged when it comes to actually voting. Sure, we’re the ones at protests, voicing our opinions online and starting movements, but those actions seem to stop at the ballot box. 

In 2016, 43.4 percent of our age demographic turned out to vote, compared to 71.4 percent of voters above the age of 60, according to the United States Elections Project.

Young voters also make up the lowest share of the voting population, according to PolitiFact. In 2016, voters aged 18 to 24 accounted for just 15.7 percent of the overall vote. Voters 60 and over made up about a third of the vote.

That’s scary, especially when as of 2016, people around retirement age only represented 20 percent of the adult population, according to National KIDS COUNT, a data center provided by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

If every eligible voter cast a ballot, the percentage of each age demographic in the voter base would be equal to their percentage in the adult population. 

Unfortunately, that’s not the case. Baby boomers are beating us to the polls. 

But why? I’ll be blunt: baby boomers will not live to see the future they’re voting for. We will. Why do young people mobilize so much before an election, but when it comes time to cast a ballot, they fail to show?

The New York Times attempted to explain the phenomenon with a little bit of psychology. According to them, voting is a habit, and in order to form a habit, you need to do it multiple times. Young people haven’t had the chance to form the voting habit yet, so while requesting an absentee ballot or getting to the polls may seem like a quadrennial fall activity for a lot of older voters, young people don’t have that routine. 

Our protests and social media activism may be getting in the way of the vote too. When young people already have a stable form of activism, that activism can undermine their want to do the very thing that can cement that activism in the government: vote. 

Clinical psychologist and contributor to Psychology Today, Vinita Mehta, doctorate in clinical psychology, argues that activist burnout may be a factor. When a person is so politically engaged that they fail to take care of their own mental health, they can experience activist burnout. Activist burnout is just like any other type of burnout — you feel lethargic, unmotivated and ready to pass the buck. In this case, the buck may be the ballot.

In many cases, it’s not the young person’s fault at all. It’s the voter registration system’s fault. Eighteen-year-olds in the United States are not automatically registered to vote. Instead, they must do it on their own, and that process may take place in their freshman year of college. Additionally, many freshmen choose to move out of their home state for postsecondary education and must navigate the voter registration system in their new location. Here at Iowa State, Iowans make up around half of the student body, meaning the rest are from other states or even other countries.

According to Slate, a daily web publication offering insight and commentary on the United States political climate, instability is the number one reason young people choose not to vote. We’re changing addresses often. We work during poll hours. The absentee ballot request process varies from state to state, so it’s hard to get the correct information.

But that doesn’t mean we don’t have a say. This year, Iowa is a crucial state. That means our votes could have the power to influence the election either way. And whatever happens — we’re deciding on our future for the next four years. We’re deciding our job prospects, our opportunity to have a family, our ability to keep attending school.

We’re deciding a lot.

It’s time to take back the vote.

We’re adults, so I’m not going to tell you who to vote for. That decision is yours to make and yours to make alone. I’m just going to tell you to vote.

Our future depends on it.