Yesterday, we reported on a new Tufts University analysis showing Kentucky was among the states showing a downturn in young voter registrations.

The report compared the number of young people registering to vote in the 2026 midterms to the 2022 midterms, 25 out of 42 states showed an increase.

Kentucky was one of the states that showed a double digit loss.

University of Kentucky political science professor Stephen Vos said the decrease does not necessarily mean young people in Kentucky are becoming less engaged politically.

We ask him what he thought it would take to increase the number of young voters in Kentucky.

I wouldn't say Kentucky's been a typical over the long span in terms of engagement of young voters.

You know, young voters especially respond to all the the flurry of campaign activity and the efforts to get them mobilized.

You know, if you go back even half a decade, we would see, was more efforts to get young people registered to vote because the candidates had the money to spend to get young people registered to vote, and they hoped for their support.

We're not seeing as much of that intense activity to get young voters on the rolls by these outside campaigns, by the national parties.

The funny thing about young people in politics right now is it's polarized.

You know, I'm faculty advisor for the College Democrats and the College Republicans at UK campus.

They are larger than they used to be.

And those folks are very engaged.

They're doing phone banking, they're doing canvasing, knocking on doors.

But in terms of the rank and file students, what we're seeing is a shift toward discussed with politics.

They're tired of team Red versus Team Blue and a feeling like their futures are doomed.

And they say they're independent.

They say they don't like the political system.

I think we're seeing a little bit of the dropping out of just the regular normal voter, at least among young people.

Parties put a lot of energy and resources into trying to get people engage politically.

That's one of the main things political parties contribute to the system is all the investments they make to try to educate people about their choices and bring people into politics.

It's a healthy process, and parties are essential in that way.

What the parties have not been successfully doing is offering people choices they feel good about.

More voters these days are voting to either stop the Democrats or stop the Republicans, than they are to elect either of them.

I mean, the number one way you get more people participating in politics is by making more people want to participate in politics.

You give them choices that are relevant to them and then they care about voting.

What we've seen lately is an increase nationwide, if not in Kentucky.

In youth engagement, the increased use engagement is not necessarily the healthiest thing, though, because this has gone along with a high pessimism among young people.

Depression, a sense that their futures are doomed.

Being politically engaged is, as we're seeing it right now, is more a warning sign.

It's a flashing light on the dashboard, not a sign of a healthy democracy.

Insofar as young people are afraid of the future, about the country's economic life or about the environment.

It's still hard to really appeal to young voters about the issues they care about.

Try to come up with solutions that they're going to believe would make a difference.

So even though we know which issues young voters say worry them, it's not so obvious how to offer them policies or proposals that would lessen that worry and get them on board.

One thing we could do is put the party back in political party.

It was a lot easier for people to get engaged with politics when it was fun, when it was surrounded with festivals and sort of the political equivalent of tailgate parties.

When you intellectualize politics and just make it.

He said.

She said disputes over over mistakes made in a speech.

It's quite natural for a lot of young people say, yeah, that's not my sport.

I'd rather go watch college football.

You know, the each party has issue positions that can appeal to younger voters, and they'd love to have young voters swinging to them based on those issues, rather than responding to the ones that the other party has.

But you know what I see, especially with the young activists coming up through the university, is that the politicians are really excited to get them involved.

They really enjoy both Democrats and Republicans working with and cultivating young people who are engaged in politics.

I just fielded my largest group of interns from UK to go to the state legislature last year for the session, and it was a nicely balanced Partizan team.

It was almost half Democrat, half Republican, and both sides came back with stories of receiving really great support from the legislators and the government relations firms with which they worked.

You know, when you're when you're getting late in life and you're involved in politics, helping cultivate young future politicians or young future activists is one of the real gratifications of being involved in political life.

Voss also says most reforms intended to make voting easier, like automatically registering voters, don't equate to an increased turnout for elections.

He says even if voting is convenient, people won't do it if they aren't interested in the candidates or the issues.