Politicians, listen up. Younger voters are being heard across Colorado.

The line to vote Tuesday at the the Auraria Campus in Denver stretched 50 yards, as students ate snacks, socialized and participated in democracy.

“If you don’t vote, you can’t bitch, and I love to bitch,” joked Tony Sanchez, 19, of Denver.

“If we don’t vote, they won’t listen to us,” added his girlfriend, Susan Watts, 20, of Denver.

New Era Colorado, a left-leaning organization for millennial voters, signed up more than 50,000 new voters for this election, said executive director Lizzy Stephan.

Politicians are going to get the message: “Young voters are a force to be reckoned with,” she said.

“Politicians have to listen to young voters and care about their issues.”

On college campuses and beyond, a key issue is student debt and tuition rates, she said.

But it’s not just about the presidential candidates who might court these votes in 2020.

“It’s about 2018,” Stephan said. “We want the candidates for governor to campaign to these younger voters, because so much of what impacts these folks is in the state budget. We’re going to expect candidates to fight to take care of young people.”

Jeff Stewart, 24, an Army veteran and college student, said younger voters aren’t taken seriously, but they are just like young soldiers.

“We all do our part, and we should all be treated fairly,” he said while waiting in line to vote. “We have a lot of issues that affect certain groups. Voters under 30 are the last to be considered. We have too many political rallies at fairgrounds and not enough of college campuses.”

Younger voters have always been more motivated than most across the country, she said. In 2012, voters 18 to 29 in Colorado had a turnout of 52 percent, compared to 39 percent nationally. Colorado instituted a mail-ballot election in 2013, which caused a 10 percent increase in voters 18 to 24 in 2014 over 2012.