Too Stupid to Vote

It may not just be stupidity that's plaguing the younger generation.

We should probably consider the laziness factor.

Seriously now, how difficult can it be to get off your rear end and go register to vote? The government makes it easy enough, we have voter registration drives every election cycle and it can't possibly take more than five minutes to fill out a form.

Those under 30 see hurdles to voting

WASHINGTON - They love using their iPods, laptops and cell phones for political information, yet many young adults say they aren't quite sure how to get a ballot in the first place.

On top of that, information overload from all the tech toys gets in the way of finding news sources they can trust. Confusing absentee ballots and a lack of faith in the system also may turn young voters into no-shows at the polls.

Andy Weisman, a 23-year-old research analyst from Arlington, Va., simply looks up information in a newspaper about the candidates. Still, he says, plenty of people his age are turned off voting by "not knowing enough about the candidates and not knowing how to find out about the candidates."

C'mon people, are you that clueless? Every candidate has an official website and countless other spinoff sites that can easily be accessed.

We're now in the fourth year of this presidential campaign cycle and the airwaves are positively saturated with campaign coverage and endless debates. If you took a couple of hours, you could probably research every candidate.

Has it come to the point where these kids are so lazy, they're going to want to text in their votes American Idol style?

OK, so let's say they finally show some initiative and find out the requisite information.

Now comes the really hard part.

Once they connect with a candidate, what can young voters do to prepare to cast their ballots? Some common questions and answers for taking that next step:

How do I register to vote?

Mary Krulia, a 22-year-old Washington legal assistant from Lancaster, Ohio, plans to cast her primary election vote from Washington in March. "But I need to re-register somehow," she said. "I need to call the board of elections and see what I need to do."

Someone please help poor Mary out. Does she know how to find the phone number so she can make the call?

Fortunately for Mary, the AP helpfully points her to a Rock the Vote site.

Some more questions for the mentally incapacitated include:

How do I learn when an election is being held?

What can I expect when I go to my polling place?

Does voting really matter to me at this time in my life?

OK, now if you're so completely braindead that you don't know when elections are being held, quite frankly I'd rather you stay home. Chances are strong you're a Democrat, so you're better off not canceling out my vote.

As to what you can expect if you actually do show up to vote: You'll wait on line for awhile, then you vote.

Crazy, isn't it?

Surely next in this helpful series from AP will be on how to read a ballot.

That one will really be a challenge.