Attention, young Kansas voters: You can make a difference. But you have to show up | Opinion

Just two years ago, Kansans were faced with a state constitutional amendment that would allowed lawmakers to ban the right to abortion entirely in the state.

On Aug. 2, 2022, the nation was stunned when Kansas voted against that amendment. We made history as the first state in the nation to vote to protect abortion rights after the fall of Roe v. Wade. People outside Kansas probably wondered how a traditionally red state voted overwhelmingly to protect abortion. The answer? Young voters.

That landmark election wouldn’t have been possible without young voters. It had the highest primary turnout for young Kansans in recent history, with 130,000 of them showing up to the polls. Those voters turned out because the threat was clear: Vote for your rights and bodily autonomy, or let the Legislature change the Kansas Constitution and ban abortion.

Flash forward just three months later, and we saw that number drop. Almost 50,000 of those primary election voters stayed home in the 2022 general election, even though a governor’s race and U.S. House seats were on the ballot. Young Kansans saw they held political power, so why didn’t they show up?

The reality is that young folks are disenchanted with politics. For a young Kansan, it’s difficult to feel hope with so little representation in our Legislature, which is predominantly older white politicians. Their median age is 63 years old, close to retirement. As someone who watches the Legislature closely, I see these older lawmakers attempt to figure out why young people run away from our state and do not vote.

They fail to understand that these politicians are the very ones pushing us away.

Watching our elected legislators pass bills that disregard the will of the people and make it harder for us to vote is disheartening, to say the least. In some parts of the state, our election officials even refuse to put polling places on college campuses so young voters have access to the polls. You can create as many jobs as you want, but people my age do not want to live in a state where legislators ignore our voices and target our communities.

To any young Kansan reading, please understand: We have the power to change all this.

The August 2022 vote showed that we have the ability to demand political change when we show up to primaries in record numbers. When young Kansans vote, they can have a dramatic effect on our politics. We need to continue to ride that momentum into this primary and general election.

This year, every single state representative and senator will be on the ballot, as well as sheriffs, district attorneys, local commission seats and more. In some areas of the state where seats are safe for Republicans or Democrats, the primary election essentially decides who wins a seat at the Statehouse.

With so much local power on the ballot this year, young voters should take this primary just as seriously as we did in 2022.

When you vote for state and local elected seats, your vote has a direct impact on the issues that affect our everyday life. When you vote in your state senate race, you’re voting on if Kansas will protect bodily autonomy or legalize marijuana. When you’re voting for county clerk, you’re voting on whether students will have access to a polling location. When you’re voting for county commissioner, you are voting on who directly effects the city in which you live.

The power of voting locally and in statewide races is not talked about enough. Some of our recent major statewide races, including the 2022 gubernatorial and attorney general contests, were decided by a roughly 2-point difference. If young Kansans harness their voting power as they did in the 2022 primary, we could be the deciding force.

It’s easy to become apathetic toward voting. But if we vote every year, no matter what, we can create the change that we crave. We have already done it before.

Kansas youths, let’s continue to show up in record-breaking numbers. Find what’s on your ballot, do the research and have conversations with your friends about voting. It’s time for us to recognize our political power.

Paris Raite is a young Kansan and the communications coordinator at Loud Light, a Kansas-based advocacy organization focused on voting rights, government transparency and increasing civic engagement. This commentary originally appeared in the nonprofit Kansas Reflector.