Don’t count them out: Young people register in record numbers

Young people don’t vote. At least, until now.

Today, the vote youth represents 22 percent of all eligible voters. At the same time, getting more than 9 million newly registered voters to the polls on election day to cast ballots will not necessarily be a sure thing. In fact, a recent Wall Street Journal, NBC News and MySpace survey suggests only 54% of new voters said they would definitely vote on Nov. 4. Since 2000, young voter participation has steadily increased. According to the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) more than 6.5 million young people participated in the primaries and causes, nearly doubling voter turnout compared to the 2000 primary. According to the group Young Democrats of America, 18-to-29-year old voters will make up one=third of the electorate by 2015.

Aggressive voter registration drives aimed toward young people, changes in voter registration processes aas well as strong interest in the elections, are significant factors influencing how may 18-to-29-year-olds will vote, research suggests. At the same time, counting on the youth vote is challenging for many political campaigns. Researchers Allison Dale and Aaron Strauss found young people rely far more exclusively on mobile communications such as e-mail, text messaging, social networking, and instant messaging than older generations. Moreover, the researchers found that younger voters are more likely to respond to passive communication such as text messaging than messages sent via U.S. mail or conventional phone canvassing.

Can a strong showing of young voters at the polls tip give one candidate an edge over another?

Barack Obama is counting on it. In a recent AP-Yahoo News poll, 60 percent of youth likely to vote say they support Obama, while 33 percent will choose John McCain. Both campaigns have focused on courting the youth vote, but historically democrats hold an edge over rival parties. In the 2004 presidential election, John Kerry won 54 percent of the youth vote compared with Bush’s 45.

At Southern Oregon University, voting coalition groups have registered more than 1,300 young people since September. Across the state, youth voter turn out in 2006 was 7 percent higher than in 2000.