A new report by the Citizen's Clean Elections Commission states half of the people eligible to vote in Arizona, don't cast their ballot.
About 45% of Arizona voters sat out of the 2016 election. That's about 2 million people who either registered to vote but didn't or people who are 18 and older but chose not to register. The commission says this is a crisis that needs to be taken seriously.
"Millenials who are ages 20 to 35 now, they're aging," Tom Collins, Executive Director of the commission said. "But still, 49% of millennials are not registered to vote at all, and so only 25% of millennial cast a ballot in the 2016 election, which was one of the most contentious elections in history."
To fix this problem, the commission says they have to figure out who votes, who doesn't vote and why. The commission says we must also admit there is a crisis.
"Whether your Democrat, Republican or Independent, if you opt out of voting, you are voting whether you like it or not," Collins said. "So better to participate and have your vote tallied than to opt out and have your vote "count" for nothing."
The commission is holding a panel discussion about this issue at 10 a.m. on Tuesday at the Westward Ho.
