Election Day and the Youth Vote

Well this is it. After almost two years of constat challenge in the political arena, and renewed interest in debate nationally, we get to make a choice. The youth vote is of interest, and the fact that they say they'll vote, but often do not is curious. I think perhaps they are overwhelmed by the ballot. All that is talked about are the major candidates and little emphasis on all the rest of the ballot. A loss of purity is realized, I belive, when they are aware that they don't know what to do about all the numerous other catagories that they have little information about.
Recommendations to follow a local newspaer suggested vote choices may not be getting through to them. The loss of idealism might be that they realize that in order to fill in the blanks they have to trust people they don't necessarily agree with. First of all , they should know that its ok to just vote for the categories that they are familiar with, even if its just the major candidates. At least they will then have voted. A question at the end of the ballot asks "You left some choices blank. Is that OK?" You just says yes and get done with your vote. Learning to vote is also learning to trust. Blind party loyalty is significant if you work and are paid as a political participant. Otherwise, its impossible to find one person that is going to be your political everything. It is fine to vote for your candidate of choice on major issues and oppose him or her on those facts that you are in disagreement on. Of course, as an individual, you won't be able to directly oppose the person you selected but you can support those issues that concern you by joining a group that is in agreement with you. For example if you like Obama but also like guns, you have to support the National Rifle Association. They of course would have prefered you didn't vote for him in the first place. But if he has everything you support except that one issue you have to act on your own to get the best of both worlds.