Student-voters — fresh from the polls on Election Day — wrote on a canvas in the University of Colorado’s student center, covering it with a rainbow of reasons to explain why they exercised their civic rights this election.

One student thanked ancestors for putting up a fight to earn voting rights. Others fretted about health care, the economy, the environment and used bold markers to ink a shout for “change.” Another student simply scrawled: “Because mom said to.”

Whatever their reasons, young people — who are notorious no-shows on Election Day — appear to have voted in record numbers locally and nationally this election, according to groups tracking the youth vote. In the Libby Hall precinct that blankets dorms on CU’s Boulder campus, there was a 45 percent increase in voter turnout since the last presidential election.

Groups charged with revving up civic enthusiasm among young voters are celebrating soaring turnout numbers. But they are simultaneously wondering how to make voting a habit among youth, bringing them back to the polls in years when there’s not a historic presidential election or when there isn’t a candidate like President-elect Barack Obama, who particularly appealed to voters in the college-age bracket.

“I think that’s the big question, and the big challenge for both the left and the right,” said Steve Fenberg, a CU graduate and executive director of New Era Colorado, a political nonprofit with a youthful edge. “We’re not always going to have a candidate who really inspires young people to vote. We need to seize this opportunity now, and not let it slip away.”

After Obama’s acceptance speech, jubilant crowds took to the streets in Boulder, cheering, setting off fireworks and chanting the president-elect’s campaign slogan, “Yes, we can.” Fenberg said there were similar Democratic celebrations in Denver, where he was stationed for election night.

“No matter where you stand on the political spectrum, if you were watching the speeches last night, you have to admit something big happened,” Fenberg said Wednesday.

Young voter turnout surged by at least 2.2 million votes since the 2004 presidential election, according to data released Wednesday by the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement. And for the first time, the young voter share of the electorate passed by that of voters older than 65, with people between 18 and 30 making up 18 percent of the electorate and those older than 65 making up 16 percent, the report shows.

Connor Burt, an 18-year-old CU freshman majoring in environmental studies, cast his first ballot ever, voting by mail. He voted for Obama, saying he favors the president-elect’s plan to cut taxes for the middle-class.

“I care a lot about policies and the way our government works,” Burt said. “I wouldn’t be able to complain if I didn’t participate.”

He said he suspects that his generation will be politically engaged citizens.

“I think a lot of it has to do with us having parents from the¤’60s or¤’70s, which is an age of political movement,” Burt said. “A lot of parents passed that on to their children.”

Voter registration drives conducted by Student Public Interest Research Groups saturated college campuses, including CU’s, with more than 2,000 volunteers participating in a “Get Out the Vote” campaign. The Colorado chapter celebrated huge increases in voter turnout in all three dorm precincts, said Kristen Pieper, campus organizer for CoPirg.

CoPirg collected data from local election officials that show high turnout rates in precincts that cover CU’s dorms. In the Libby Hall precinct, there was an 84 percent turnout rate, according to election results. Across the campus in the Darley Commons, 87 percent of eligible voters voted, and in the Kittredge Commons precinct there was a 62 percent turnout rate. In total, about 2,000 students living in the dorms voted.

“The reason we have the New Voter Project is to make sure young people will vote in record numbers, and they will be paid attention to,” Pieper said.

She said she wants to break the “cycle of mutual neglect,” in which young people don’t vote, and politicians shrug off their concerns about affordable higher education or the environment.

Ken Bickers, a CU political science professor, said polls show that voter turnout in Colorado exceeded 80 percent, which he describes as “monumental.”

Turnout rates haven’t been so high since 1960, when Democrat John Kennedy faced Republican Richard Nixon. About 64 percent of eligible citizens nationwide voted in that election.

“It appears that the voter turnout levels were way up, but were way up among all people,” Bickers said. “It was an election that everybody was excited about or felt strongly about.”

Young voters are especially motivated to cast ballots if the election is close or if a candidate has special appeal, Bickers said.

A national exit poll showed Obama won two-thirds of voters younger than 30.