Millennials want change, so why aren't they voting?

Young people could change this country.

They have the numbers. In 2016, Americans aged 18 to 35 were roughly 31% of the U.S. electorate — same as the powerful Baby Boom generation. Only, the younger voters' percentage is on the rise while the boomers' is declining because of mortality. By now, millennials (ages 23 to 38) could be the largest cohort in American politics.

They are, by a long shot, the most liberal and racially diverse of the age groups eligible to vote. By substantial margins, they're more likely to favor universal healthcare, climate action, diplomacy over military might, abortion rights, and to say that immigrants strengthen America, according to the Pew Research Center. But they're not changing the country. Not enough.

That's largely because, for all their potential power, they aren't voting — at least in substantial numbers.

The dismaying fact is that on Super Tuesday, despite the heavy stakes affecting their future, younger voters didn't show up. In Virginia, for example, where overall voting surged 62% over four years ago, the share of young voters declined to 13%, three points less than in 2016. The young cohort's standard-bearer, Sen. Bernie Sanders, won 55% of those young voters. But former Vice President Joe Biden took the state, commandingly.

It was the same in North Carolina. Young voters were 14% of the electorate on Super Tuesday, compared to 16% four years ago. In Tennessee, 11% compared to 15%.

Sanders admits that a pillar of his campaign strategy a surge in youth voting has flopped. "Let me tell you the bad news, to be honest with you, young people vote at much lower rates than older people," the Vermont senator said Monday.

The failure of those campaigns to translate youthful enthusiasm into votes is particularly disappointing because millennial turnout nearly doubled between the midterm elections in 2014 and 2018 from 22% to 42%, according to Pew Research. Some of that was undoubtedly fueled by gun-control activism spurred by survivors of 2018's tragic Parkland shooting.

Why did that momentum stop?

One young woman told National Public Radio that she works several jobs and goes to school but in Washington, voting is almost all by mail. She suggested making Election Day a holiday. Another said there should be "an incentive to come to the polls to vote." She suggested doughnuts.

What kind of breakdown in civics education produces young adults who think that voting is some kind of favor they do for someone else, like participating in a product survey, and that they should get a little something in return?