Hey kids, you really stink at this voting business

The public service announcement begins with an insult.

This works on several levels for the audience of teenagers.

It grabs their attention and makes them laugh. It also happens to be wickedly accurate, and it pretty much explains why Pasco Supervisor of Elections Brian Corley does this tour of high school auditoriums.

In so many words — or maybe just one popular slang word — he tells them how horrible they are when it comes to voting.

And, sadly, he's right.

This is not groundbreaking stuff, but I recently stumbled across a chart from the U.S. Census Bureau that breaks down voting rates by age for midterm elections. As you might expect, retirees show up at the polls with the greatest frequency and the rates go on a steep downhill tumble from there.

What is stunning is just how ugly the numbers are.

In 2014, the last midterm, only 23.1 percent of eligible voters ages 18-34 cast a ballot. That means for that age group, a person is three times more likely not to vote in a congressional election.

"The challenge is getting them to understand why it matters,'' Corley said. "I tell them if they agree with their grandparents on every issue, then they don't have to bother to vote. They get the sarcasm. You can see it when they have that 'a-ha' moment. Kids are smart. If you challenge them, if you make it relatable to them, they'll figure it out.''

The grandparent reference is appropriate. Though the AARP crowd makes up a smaller portion of the population, it has a ridiculously outsized influence when it comes to elections.

Going back to that last midterm, voters who were 44 and younger accounted for 30.3 percent of the ballots cast. Which means that the old geezers — and I would be in that crowd — contributed 69.7 percent of the ballots, or more than double the number.

"Voting is power,'' Corley said. "So I tell (young people) to get off the sidelines, get off their butts, they can change the outcome of an election.''

Of course, there are suggestions that this midterm could be different in Florida. The tragedy in Parkland in February seems to have led to a greater awareness and activism among younger voters.

"We've had high school students contacting us asking to do voter registration drives at their schools, which we've always done in the past. Colleges are connecting with us in ways we've never seen before,'' said Hillsborough Supervisor of Elections Craig Latimer. "Registering hasn't been the issue as much as voting in the past, so we'll see how this translates.''

To illustrate the point, Latimer said that only 9 percent of registered voters in the 18-25 age group voted in the primary last month. Now that could be due to a lot of younger voters registering without a party affiliation and thus skipping the primary. Or it could mean the enthusiasm is already waning.

The greater point is that this cannot simply be a moment in history. It cannot be limited to one generation of engaged high school students. There is too much at stake in every election, and there are too many college-age and 30-something voters who take this privilege for granted.

When Corley insults high school students, he does it gently with tongue in cheek. I'm willing to be more direct:

Until further notice, us old coots are kicking your punk butts.