By PAULA PANT Colorado Daily Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 5, 2008 9:52 PM MST
Young people are breaking poll turnout records this primary season.
A
quarter of eligible voters 19-29 participated in Tuesday's Ohio
primary, a near-doubling over the 2000 presidential primary, in which
15 percent turned out to the polls. About 220,000 more Ohio voters
turned out this year than eight years ago, according to the Center for
Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement.
Seventeen
percent of 19-29 year olds in Texas cast primary ballots on Tuesday, up
from 6 percent of the population eight years ago. Young voters 19-29
jumped 450,000 over the 2000 election turnout.
Leaders of youth
voter-mobilization groups say the trend began with the 2004 election,
when Howard Dean became the first major-party candidate to pioneer
internet-related and youth-centric fundraising.
At the time,
politicos weren't totally sold on the benefits of directing their
limited time and money toward the historically poll-shy young crowd.
“A
lot of people credit Howard Dean's fall to relying too heavily on the
youth vote,” said Steve Fenberg, executive director of youth
voter-mobilization group New Era Colorado.
Still, the winds of change had begun blowing. Turnout numbers rose steadily though 2004 and 2006.
In
response, prominent candidates seeking a niche - including Mike
Huckabee, Ron Paul and Barack Obama - began courting this fresh-faced
demographic.
This year, three factors fused together to create the “perfect storm,” Fenberg said.
“For
one thing, I think we can agree it's a pretty transformative year,” he
said. “We're this far away from Super Tuesday and we still don't know
who the Democratic candidate is.”
Another reason, Fenberg said,
is that a “second wave” of youth voter-mobilization groups have sprung.
The “first wave” started during Bill Clinton's years, when MTV launched
Rock the Vote. The second wave sprang around the 2004 election, when
more independent, state-based voter mobilization groups emerged.
Youth
are also directly affected by three hot-button campaign issues, he
said: the Iraq war, which is fought by young soldiers and is cited in
polls as the number one youth concern; health care, which impacts
recent college graduates who are left without coverage as they search
for entry-level jobs; and global climate change.
“I think it's
been a long time coming,” said Cory Nadler, campus organizer for CU's
Colorado Public Interest Group student chapter.
Nadler said the
voter-turnout trend builds on itself: Politicians started gearing
campaigns toward twentysomethings after they saw higher numbers of
youth cast ballots in the last two elections. Youth, conversely, are
more likely to vote now that politicians are speaking out about their
interests.
“If politicians actually pay attention to them, we can reverse the cycle of disenfranchisement,” Nadler said.
Young
voters in 20 states broke turnout records on “Super Tuesday” caucus day
in early February. Youth in several states doubled or tripled their
2004 turnout numbers.
“This race is really wide-open on both
sides of the aisle,” said Sujatha Jahagirdar, program director of New
Voters Project, a division of PIRG. “Anyone could win the nomination,
and I think that's bringing a lot more young people to the polls. They
feel like their vote really counts.”
Nadler attributes some of the increase to a surge in voter-mobilization groups.
In
2006, two Harvard researchers and one University of Notre Dame
researcher found that three tactics commonly used in youth
voter-mobilization campaigns - door hangers, phone calls, and
face-to-face visits - are almost equally cost-effective and successful.
Three
Yale University researchers also published findings showing
face-to-face contact was effective in increasing voter turnout, based
on a study of six mid-size Midwestern and East Coast cities prior to
the 2001 elections.
Contact Paula Pant about this story at pant@coloradodaily.com, or at (303) 531-4951.
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