Are you feeling the Bern? Or maybe you’re convinced that you can’t stump Trump? Either way, college students have established themselves as some of the most passionate and polarized individuals within politics, specifically in election years.

All this passion, however, often goes unrepresented, as college students and other young people in the U.S. consistently fall to the bottom of the barrel in terms of voter registration, according to censuses.

College students’ low registration and turnout rate is understandable, seeing that registering to vote and physically filling out a ballot can seem like just another thing on the list of endless homework assignments and class projects.

Yet, college students wonder why candidates fail to appeal to the poor, non-voting, fired-up student.

Certainly there is rhetoric surrounding college issues present, mostly in terms of reducing, or even eliminating tuition costs, but many times this is just part of a much larger economic plan.

For instance, CNN Money published an article on Jan. 17 exploring the economic policy of Bernie Sanders. Yes, free access to public universities is part of his proposal, but it is just another part of his economic policy, which suggests increased social welfare across the board.

An appeal to college students? Sure. But a direct ploy to please their needs and gain votes? Hardly.

If students really want their voices heard, they need to establish themselves as a legitimate voting demographic.

As referenced early this week in my column “The Republicans’ key to 2016: Immigration reform,” the reason Latin American issues are being taken seriously is because their vote now has the ability to win or lose an election; something college students cannot yet say.

That being said, there has certainly been a shift. Even from the 2008 election to the 2012 election, there was a jump of one percentage point in the election results in terms of college-aged individuals, according to an article published shortly after the 2012 election by the Huffington Post.

Looking at the 2016 election, it will be interesting to see what role college students play in determining the next commander-in-chief.

An article published by USA Today encourages college students to get involved more than they have in the past in this upcoming election. The author adds, “we are blessed in this country to have the right to vote for any candidate of our choosing, and yet there are many college students who choose not to vote.”

Why vote in the first place though? We’ve all studied the Electoral College and seen that the system is rather obscure when it comes to tallying our individual votes, especially being in Washington, a state that is often seen fixed blue in any national election anyway.

The right to vote is one that many people around the world cannot boast. Men and women of all races and religions are able to vote in the US and it’s certainly not something that should be taken for granted.

The primary reason, however, is simply because the future of this country is in the hands of young people. Many of the individuals who turn out to vote will not even be around to see the consequences. Present the issues and represent the demographic.