Submission: Voting is the best way to ensure lawmakers listen to student demands

Nov. 8, 2016 is on track to be a historic day for Californians, and Donald Trump has nothing to do with it.

This year, California voters will have the chance to decide on 17 state ballot measures that have the ability to legalize recreational marijuana, reduce prescription drug prices, require background checks on ammunition sales, ban the death penalty and more. That’s in addition to affordable housing and mass transit initiatives in LA County, an open U.S. Senate seat and all the usual CA State Senate, Assembly and U.S. Congressional races.

All in all, Westwood voters could have more than 50 choices to make this year, hardly any of them boring and just one of them having to do with our next president.

But, I assure you, this is by no means a persuasive essay on the merits of voting as a facilitator of civic engagement.

Here’s why voting really matters: Lawmakers listen to those who vote. Countless studies have shown that voter turnout among a demographic group links closely to the likelihood of government making policy decisions in that group’s favor. For example, the more low-income citizens who vote, the more welfare programs will be expanded.

And, when it comes to students, our voting block and policy demands couldn’t be clearer. We want the state of California to pay for our education the same way it paid for our parents’ education. We want better mental health services, affordable housing and food. And we want to be able to graduate without mountainous student loan debt.

Today, state funding per student at the University of California is near historically low levels, and our state Legislature and governor feel almost no pressure to take action.

We’ve yelled and screamed, we’ve broken windows and written angry Facebook statuses.

But we haven’t voted.

Nationwide in 2014, only 19.9 percent of 18-29 year olds voted – the lowest number in decades.

What that means is that our state lawmakers are less concerned with the UC’s basic ability to survive in its current state, and more concerned with keeping our school’s admissions noncompetitive for California residents – something that frustrates over-protective parents who do vote.

In two years, we’ll face another election, and we’ll probably turnout to vote at even lower numbers than we will this year. But in two years, we’ll be electing a new governor. And everyone knows that the governor of California has the single greatest role in determining where our $167 billion budget goes.

If that race were held today, the candidates would likely say little about their plans for the future of UC. And why should they? Candidates act based on the voters they’ll win over, and doing so wouldn’t do much for them.

We have the chance to change things, to ingrain voting in our culture and in our system for generations to follow us.

This fall, seven different political organizations on campus, including the Office of the External Vice President, will join together under the BruinsVote! umbrella to take on a task so big, we believe it’s never been done at UCLA: We want to register 15,000 students to vote.

It’ll take massive organizing ability, require hundreds of student leaders and cost us all many sleepless nights.

But we know that many of these races – especially at the local level – can come down to a voter base the size of UCLA. We know that if we all voted, we could walk into our congressmember’s office and have our voices heard. And, most importantly, we know that our next governor would have to care a little bit more about our tuition and the future of our university.

We have just four weeks to make a difference, and we need all the help we can get.

If you’re ready to turn words into actions this election season, join us today. Visit www.bruinsVOTE.com or contact me directly at usaEVP@asucla.ucla.edu.