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Of course there are those who might argue that such statistics do not represent a pressing need for young adults to engage. These people often contend that the children of the Baby Boomers are lazy and if they want to inform themselves and turn out to vote, they will do so; they believe that the system is better off without "uninformed" votes - that those who do not seek out political information do the system a favor by keeping distance between themselves and the voting booths. But isn't not involving Generation X in the voting process contributing to the painfully low numbers in the amount of America's registered voters.
First let us look at why it is that so many people are not registered to vote. Registration in the United Sates is a very lengthy process that requires time, something a lot of people in this fast paced nation do not have. To get out to town hall takes time, to wait in line takes some more time, to fill out a form and understand what it says takes some more time, eventually one finds themselves over burdened by the tasks presented to him/her and decides to not register all together. There is a solution to all this. When the motor-voter bill was presented in 1993 "49 million voting-age people who were not registered to vote had driver's licenses or other state identification cards. The motor-voter bill took effect in 1995. In just two months, 630,000 new voters signed up in twenty seven states." This measure clearly increased voter registration. It is quite obvious that the need to make registration more accessible to people is out there.
However, making registration easier won't directly solve the problem of why Generation X is not at the polls. Many believe that voting is all about being informed and that the act of informing oneself is a wholly active process. In fact, in today's media boom, getting information about politics is most likely less of a function of deliberately informing oneself than is a function of being targeted by campaigns.
