Hillary Clinton urges students to ditch class on Election Day

(Image credit: Screenshot/Twitter/NowThisNews)

published 2 November 2018

Former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton wants students across America to skip class next week — so they can go vote, that is.

Clinton on Friday shared a report from NowThis about students in high school and college planning to walk out of class on Election Day so they can all go to the polls together. While linking to the Walkout to Vote website, Clinton encouraged her Twitter followers to make sure "young voters you know don't miss out." The event is being organized by a coalition of different organizations, including March for Our Lives, the group founded by survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida.

Voter turnout tends to be fairly low among young people during presidential elections, and even lower for midterm elections. In fact, turnout among voters between ages 18 and 35 is lower than that of any other age group: just 46 percent voted in the 2016 election, NPR reports. For comparison, turnout among voters aged 71 and older was 72 percent in 2016. In a recent NBC poll, just one-third of millennials said they will definitely be voting this year.

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Brendan worked as a culture writer at The Week from 2018 to 2023, covering the entertainment industry, including film reviews, television recaps, awards season, the box office, major movie franchises and Hollywood gossip. He has written about film and television for outlets including Bloody Disgusting, Showbiz Cheat Sheet, Heavy and The Celebrity Cafe.

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