Millennial turnout could drop by 5 million votes from 2012

Trump supporters will likely celebrate this fact: millennials don’t want to vote in 2016. Fewer millennials mean fewer voters who typically lean toward Democrats. Considering millennials are America’s largest age demographic, this will have a massive impact on 2016. Frankly, it’s Donald Trump’s only hope.

America’s consensus for years has been to encourage citizens, especially younger citizens, to get involved in elections. That’s not happening in 2016, and both parties are to blame. Both the Democrats and the Republicans nominated candidates that have little appeal to younger voters, and now, young people are pledging to sit this election out.

In a recent ABC/Washington Post poll, just 41 percent of voters under age 30 are “absolutely certain” they will vote; another 15 percent “probably will.” Among voters over 30, 75 percent are “absolutely certain” they will vote. According to Pew Research, 47 percent of voters under age 35 say they will “definitely vote.”

In the same Pew poll, 71 percent of the electorate under 35 said they support legalizing marijuana. 2016 has become the year where young voters care more about legal drugs than they do supporting either candidate for president. The 2016 campaign is scaring away the next generation.

In 2012, 45 percent of all citizens under age 30 voted; considering only 60 percent were registered to vote, that would mean 75 percent of all voters under 30 years old turned out.