After visiting Kenya, college graduate Brian Goldberg realized just how much America’s youth takefor granted.
He watched as the young people in the East African country walked three days just to cast their votes, trying desperately to make a difference in a country where the government reigns supreme, despite how its people vote. Goldberg worried that young Americans don’t appreciate their own right to vote.
“The youth in Kenya had dreams, but didn’t see any way to reach these dreams because of the economic status and corrupt government in their country,” Goldberg said. “We [Americans] can achieve our dreams, and voting is the way our generation has a voice.”
The “generation” Goldberg refers to is the 18 to 24-year-old U.S. citizens who currently have the lowest voting percentage in history. In 1972, following the Vietnam War, the number of youth registered to vote was 50 percent. Today it has declined to 20 percent.
Ready to change this alarming statistic, Goldberg recruited longtime friend Benjamin Bruder and Bruder’s former classmate Jonas Parker to start Bike for Youth Votes. Both were ready and willing to assist in spreading awareness about youth voting.
“Voting is a privilege and responsibility we have and need to take advantage of,” Bruder said.
The first challenge for the 23-year-old friends was to find the best way to reach at least a portion of America’s youth, Bruder said. They decided to cycle down the West Coast due to its optimal weather conditions and large progressive cities. The next challenges were more complicated.
“This has been a lot of work,” Parker said. “Getting voter registration forms was the easy part, but we had to put the whole trip together.”
Getting up to speed on the latest political issues, deciding a route, making contacts with schools and the media and finding a way to finance the trip took the trio four months to complete.
The trio will be making an appearance at the University today to run a Voter Registration Drive.
By biking from the Canadian to the Mexican border (approximately 1,776 miles), Bike for Youth Votes plans to run voter registration drives, visit high schools and colleges, meet with local political organizations and attract media coverage. The journey started on Sept. 15, and, as a result, around 200 young people have been registered to vote. The response has been encouraging, Bruder said.
“We’re really the perfect age for this,” Bruder said. “The youth are getting a message from other youth rather than older people and politicians.”
Remaining “non-partisan,” the group feels they are less threatening than politicians pushing their views on young voters.
“There are basically two reasons why young people don’t vote,” Goldberg said. “The first is they don’t think their vote makes a difference. The second is they feel disconnected from the government and don’t understand the government’s part in their lives.”
Cycling down the western United States is changing these activists’ lives as well. While one of the three drives (a car is necessary to transport papers and supplies), the other two travel bicycle routes along highways and roads. Averaging 50 miles a day, they attempt to stay with friends and sometimes end up camping out. Thanks to their sponsors, however, they aren’t without the necessities of life.
“The sponsors have provided money for food and gas,” Parker said. “Two of our sponsors are Cliff Bark and Balance Bar, and they’ve been giving us their products, which help with our energy levels.”
The cyclists are also self-proclaimed “big athletes” who have been biking since childhood. Parker and Bruder live in Colorado and are active in outdoor sports as well.
Being so active has lent the group an “energy,” said ASUO vice president Holly Magner.
“They [Goldberg, Bruder, and Parker] contacted us and let us know they were going to be in the area,” Magner said. “We jumped on this awesome opportunity to have fresh faces and fresh new energy recruiting voters. They just care so much about the issue.”
Despite their energy, Bruder says this will probably be the only trip the group will make.
“After this trip, we’ll probably move on to our respective careers and have other things going on in our lives,” Bruder said.
With that in mind, the group will work hard on this trip and hope for continued success as they move into California.
“We expect a good response in California, because it will be getting closer to election time,” Parker said.