Excellent 'Time Warp' parody urges people to vote
Earlier this year the Socia(lites) comedy group absolutely killed it with their viral video “Zoom Block Tango”.
Now they’re back and encouraging people to vote in this year’s election and they’re doing it with some Rocky Horror inspiration. Here is their “Time Warp” parody “Let’s Light the Polls Up Again”.
Needless to say, it’s creative with its lyrics. My favorite is “It’s just a jump to the left, to get away from the right.”
But apart from the fun of this video, it does speak to an important issue. In 2016, nearly 100 million eligible Americans did not cast a vote for president, representing 43% of the eligible voting-age population.
Studies have concluded the reasons for this vary from:
Many non-voters suffer from a lack of faith in the election system and have serious doubts about the impact of their own votes: Thirty-eight percent of non-voters are not confident that elections represent the will of the people, and non-voters are more likely to say that this is because the system is rigged. Non-voters are less likely to believe votes are counted fully and accurately, or to say that decisions made by the president or others in Washington have a strong impact on their lives.
Non-voters engaged less with news and are left feeling underinformed: Non-voters are twice as likely as active voters to passively encounter news versus actively seeking it out, and to say they do not feel they have enough information about candidates and issues to decide how to vote. Their media diets involve less news and more entertainment as compared to active voters.
While less partisan, non-voters are more evenly divided on key issues and on President Trump than active voters: Non-voters showed slightly more support for constructing a wall along the Mexican border than active voters, while being less supportive of replacing the Affordable Care Act. If they all voted in 2020, non-voters would add an almost equal share of votes to Democratic and Republican candidates, but important differences exist across swing states.
The emerging electorate is even less informed and less interested in politics: Young eligible citizens (18-24 years old) are even less likely than non-voters to report following political news, and feel less informed than non-voters come election time. Fewer are interested in voting in 2020 than non-voters, principally because they don’t care about politics. They also struggle the most with the voting process.
Here’s how the last Presidential election fared when it came to voters vs. non-voters.
So it’s more important than ever that we get out the vote. Make your voice heard. If you need to register to vote, click on this link to find out how. Let’s light the polls up again!