Across the country, the excitement on college campuses in 2008 was palpable and that enthusiasm spilled into the ballot box with the youth vote surging by 2 million voters.

For the first time, young voter share of the electorate also surpassed that of voters over 65, with young people making up 18 percent of the electorate and those over 65 making up 16 percent.

Several factors - from increased attention paid to young voters by candidates to the proliferation of technology in the lives of young voters to a rise in civic engagement among young people - contributed to this surge.

2008’s youth turnout marks the third significant increase in turnout in as many election cycles. In 2004, turnout rates increased among young voters by 11 percent, nearly three times the rate of the general population. In 2006, youth turnout increased by two million votes, while general turnout increased only slightly.

Let’s keep that trend going!

This year, the state of Colorado has a number of important candidate races as well as a number of issues that will be decided through initiatives. Some of the races include the race for Governor, one US Senator seat, all 7 House of Representative seats and a slew of state legislator seats. 

CoPIRG’s New Voters Project is gearing up to make sure every young person is registered and gets to the polls.  We will storm dorms, invad classrooms and even stage guerrilla theater performances to urge young voters to the polls. We’ll also employ a cadre of tech tools - from Facebook to ‘text out the vote’ tables to urge our friends to the polls. We’ll also take advantage of the first election where students can register to vote online. 

For any additional information, visit www.NewVotersProject.org.