The Youth Vote
At this site and in this country there is a large amount of ignorance when it comes to the voting habits of youth. They are seen both as a liberal panacea (or menace depending upon who you are) and lazy disconnected cynics. These views highlight the rift between the America's youth and adult culture and, more importantly the rift between youth culture and political parties. Both parties should be trying to bridge that gap, with a historically low turnout and malleable views great and long lasting gains are most likely to made within the youth demographic. It is important in trying to understand this demographic to study their turnout, views, and which programs currently in place are succeeding (or failing).
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Turnout
Almost immediately after voting was finished in 2004 reports started being released indicating that youth had not turned out in much anticipated large numbers. Then later, as exit polls were further analyzed, and sloppy reporting was corrected, it turned out that they had voted in numbers not seen in decades. Overall 42% of Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 voted in the last election, a six percent increase since 2000. However the youth voter share, meaning their share of votes cast was virtually identical to the number in 2000. Meaning that adults, a demographic with nearly double the turnout to begin with, were just as effectively tapped. Youth turnout rose, but remained quite low relative to other voting groups in the last election, meaning that there are still great gains to be made. Well over 10 million Americans aged 18 to 24 voted in 2004 leaving well over 11 million who could still be brought into the political process. Considering the razor thin differences in the last two elections it is a number that could radically affect the make up of American government depending on how breaks between parties.
The Liberal Panacea
It is a widely held belief that gays are on the same inexorable path toward equality that blacks found themselves on during the last hundred and forty years. As evidence of this it is pointed out that the younger a person is the more likely they are to support gay marriage, or a form of it in everything but name. From this it is often assumed that as a whole America's values are becoming more progressive. However in the last election the issues that were important to adults were similarly important to youth and, among listed issues, youth selected the cringe inducing moral values 22% of the time, just frequently as older voters. Education was slightly more important to youth and terrorism slightly less but overall their issues were the same as in their parent's age group.
It does appear, however, that, at the moment, the youngest generation is trending Democratic. People under thirty are 12 percent more likely to identify themselves as liberal, 16 percent more likely to favor gay marriage and eight percent more likely to vote Kerry than people aged between 30 and 39. Youth identify by party in almost exactly the same numbers as adults (D-37 R-35 I-29) but independent youth trend Democratic in their values more than the population at large. A trend the Democratic Party should be taking full advantage of.
Seducing Youth
In a poll consisting of more than 800 local party heads, half republican and half democrat, only a third indicated that youth voters were one of the three most important demographics to their parties' long-term success. It is important that Democrats change this view. Given the trending of youth towards Democratic values and their tremendous under-performance in recent elections, a successful partisan outreach program could shift the outcome of approaching elections in the Democrats favor.
Getting the youngest age brackets to the polls in larger numbers has proven to be a tough task. The first election after the voting age was reduced to eighteen saw a 50% turnout among 18 to 24 years olds. A figure, which, even in the high turnout year of 2004, has not recently approached. The increasing apathy toward politics in the population at large is being mirrored on a much more dramatic scale by the youth of this country, and traditional methods of increasing turnout have not been working.
National parties are unable to connect to teens on a personal level, the method most effective in getting them to vote. Programs organized by local parties to increase youth turnout are for the most part limited to passing out registration cards at high schools and talking to college Democrat and Republican organizations. Dean's campaign in the 2004 Democratic primaries showed part of the solution. The level of interaction allowed by the meetups, blogs, and unique fundraising techniques drew youth to the campaign in a way that impersonal TV advertisements could, not and the Democratic Party is beginning to move towards incorporating his campaign's innovations in their own blogs and fundraising.
Dean's innovations however are not enough in themselves to cultivate a large and consistently voting base of Democratic youth. Local party organizations are unique in their potential for direct outreach to voters, but this strength is used almost exclusively for Voter ID, Voter Persuasion, and GOTV operations in the months preceding a major election. In order to solidify and expand democratic support and voting habits among youth it would be essential for local parties to become more involved in youth culture. Perhaps sponsoring social events (think Rocking for Reid) or organizing meetings between youth and Democratic politicians in off years. However local parties choose to involve themselves it would have to be on a much larger scale and it would have to incorporate to far more youth than efforts currently do.
Information in this article can, for the most part, be found at civicyouth.org
Other information is from a paper by Daniel Shea