In reflection on the Youth Voting Rights and the 26th Amendment in the USA lecture, I appreciated that Dr. Jennifer Frost refused to accept the supposition that youth in the late 60’s – early 70’s America were disinterested in electoral voting. At their first opportunity to vote in the 1972 presidential elections, Dr. Frost reflected that only 48% of 18-20 year olds voted throughout the nation. These numbers led scholars to deduce that the 26th Amendment’s ratification was inconsequential and of little importance to American youth. However, Dr. Frost would not accept that youth were indifferent to their voting rights. Dr. Frost interrogated what scholars took for “objective fact,” determined to explicate the discrepancy.
From our conversation with Dr. Frost, we discovered that 18 year olds wanting to vote were required by law to register six months to a year in advance. Moreover, Berkley endorsed this law and maintained that students who wanted to vote had to go back to their home city, which for many students, was not a feasible option during the college year. Therefore, Dr. Frost demonstrated to me the importance of critiquing discrepant outcomes that others may accept as fact.
Thus, without people like Dr. Frost pursuing the truth against the grain of widespread assumption, America’s youths will continue to be unfairly represented, and in turn, sustaining the downward trend of voter turnout. In terms of the implications for my future research, Dr. Frost’s lecture challenged me to scrutinize my outcomes and to explore third variable factors.
