Caucus training sessions planned on campuses
By Vanessa Miller (Contact)
Monday, January 14, 2008
Colorado is considered by some public-interest research groups as a
key state in this year's presidential election, and they say a high
number of eligible college-aged voters here could help break national
records for turnout among 18- and 19-year-olds.
Student branches of Colorado's Public Interest Research Group, or
CoPIRG, are planning caucus training sessions in hopes of getting young
people out on Feb. 5 -- when the state holds its caucuses.
Although details of the sessions haven't been finalized, Cory
Nadler, CoPIRG's campus organizer at the University of Colorado, said
CU's training will probably be held the week before the caucus.
"The goal is to teach them how to be an effective caucuser," Nadler said. "It's a lost democratic art in our community."
Volunteers will call apartments and residence halls to notify CU
studentsabout the importance of caucusing and the available practice
rounds, Nadler said. If this summer's youth voting initiatives are any
indicator, he said, the caucus practices -- and the real thing -- will
be well attended by young people.
A summer push to encourage youth voting invited young people to
candidate events, where they were encouraged to ask tough questions of
the 2008 presidential hopefuls. Nadler said never before has there been
such a good showing among young people.
"I think Feb. 5 will be a meaningful day in the political landscape for this country," he said.
So far, in the nation's first caucuses and primaries, young people
have been much more dominant than in the past. In the New Hampshire
primary Tuesday, 53,000 more voters under 30 turned out than in 2004.
Colorado has about 303,000 college students and about 637,000
eligible young voters, according to 2006 statistics from the CoPIRG.
"I think we have a very young, and up-and-coming state," Nadler
said. "We've been working since August to register more than 3,000
students to vote."
Nadler cites several reasons why he thinks 2008 will be the election of the young.
The race is wide open -- no incumbents are vying for the post, and no clear nominees have been identified in any party.
"Change" has become the buzzword for most candidates, and young
people historically have been much more open to change than their
elders, Nadler said.
"And, we are the second-largest voting block in the country," he
said. "In 10 years, we'll be the largest, so it's imperative that the
candidates pay attention to the issues we care about."
Dozens of CU students have linked candidate Web sites to their
Facebook pages, adding comments about how their hopeful "rocks" or how
the polls are the "place to be."
On the CU-based Facebook group page titled, "Voter Registration
Drive," one student commented: "i think i speak for every girl in the
entire world when I say guys who register to vote are (expletive) sexy."
According to the New Hampshire Public Interest Research Group, young
people on a national level comprise a fourth of the U.S. electorate.
"Students on campuses from California to Colorado, Florida to
Wisconsin, and New Mexico to Pennsylvania are working with the student
PIRGs to mobilize young people through tested peer-to-peer registration
and 'get out the vote' drives," said Sujatha Jahagirdar, a spokesperson
for the New Hampshire group.
The student branch of that national research group has launched a
New Voters Project, and that's become the country's largest youth voter
mobilization program -- registering more than 600,000 young people
since 2004.
