The 2008 elections have captured the attention of many citizens. Candidates are reaching out more to the youth in this presidential race. Even though in earlier elections there has been a higher percentage of voters "older than 50" this upcoming election will change that. Candidates are seen working harder to get their messages across to high school and college students. According to the Rock The Vote website "young people voted in record numbers in the 2004 and 2006 elections and all signs point to 2008 being even bigger for the youth vote." This offcourse is of great interest to the candidates and it is now crucial that they invest time trying to attain those votes. One of the most critical states for this presidential race is Iowa since their caucases will be first. Just using Iowa one can see how candidates like Clinton, Edwards, and Obama are reaching out to the youth in that state.The article "BarackStars,' 'Hill Yea!' rally yo
uth for Democrats" , talks about this issue. "Iowa's presidential caucuses are typically a gray-haired affair," yet this year presidential hopefuls are expecting many new young faces to show up and vote. For example in the town of Ames, a seventeen year old high school senior is the "head of Iowa State University's chapter of BarackStars, an organization set up by the campaign with groups throughout the state." At such a young age, Chris Elsenbast (shown at the right) is involved in the world of politics and knows who he wants as president. When interviewed he stated, "I agree with a lot of his policies, but I think he is really like a different type of politician." Just a few miles away in Norwalk, a suburb of Des Moines, Ryan Mc Nulty, age seventeen, has become a volunteer for the Edwards campaign. He became involved after engaging in a discussion about the candidates with his government teacher. Both of these teens will turn eighteen before the caucuses this Winter in Iowa and are ready to show full su
pport to their chosen candidates. It is not only males involved in supporting these campaigns. In Hillary's Iowa youth page we can see that teenage young girls are joining this trend (seen in the left).It is nice to see that our youth are getting involved in the world of politics. It brings great hope that this country will head into a better future if our soon to be adults are becoming aware of the issues and taking the time to become aware to support someone who they think can take the country to a better state.
This is not the first time that the youth of America seem to be more involved in politics. According to rockthevote.com, in 2006, youth voter turnout was higher than usual. The article Young Voter Turnout Surges In 2006, explains the increase seen in youth voters in the last two elections. The 2002 elections showed, 18-29s comprised 11% of all votes cast. In the 2006 election, 18-29s cast 13% of the votes. "This is a significant result, considering that young people are actually a smaller share of the electorate in 2006 than they were in 2002, and also that turnout overall in the 2006 election appears to be up from 2002. The data shows that the increase in voter turnout for 18-29 year olds in 2006 significantly outpaced the overall population turnout increase." This data could be the reason why candidates decided to focus on our younger voters. This article also shows that in the 2006 House and Senate elections, "CNN's national exit polls show young voters favored Democrats by a 22-point margin, nearly three times the margin that Democrats earned among other age groups." Now Republicans must be feeling the pressure to get these new voters on their side if theyw ant to take a lead over the Democratic candidates.The question now rests on how the youth of America is likely to vote for the upcoming 2008 elections. A survey conducted by the Pew Research Center showed that teens are interested in the upcoming elections, "38% of 18-29 year olds have watched candidate debates, about the same percentage as 30-49 year olds (36%) and 50-64 year olds (42%). Young adults were also very likely to report finding the debates useful: more than three-quarters (77%) of 18-29 year olds said the debates helped them learn about the presidential contenders, compared to 56% of those 65 years and older." I think that seeing the crisis the world seems to be in has motivated younger citizens to learn and get involved. The Pew Research Center also discovered that You Tube/CNN debates are appealing to those voters under age 30. This goes to show that technological advances may be effectively helping presidential hopefuls. The Pew Research Center also investigated the affiliation of these young voters and they came up with similar results than those of RocktheVote.com. A higher percentage of youth seems to vote in favor of democrats than republicans. However, nothing is set in stone and the outcomes can turn out to be different from the polling results. We just have to wait and see how accurate polls can be in predicting the outcomes of elections.
2 comments:
I thought you did a great job of explaining the issues surrounding “The Youth Voice in Politics.” After reading this post, I had a better understanding of exactly what causes young people to get out and vote and for whom they are voting. You did a very good job of using your sources to legitimize your points. I also think that your style is very simple and gets your ideas across in a very clear manner. However, I did find a few things that I believe could be improved. I think that your images need to be more equal in size; the first one is much larger than the second. There are a few typos present such as “Off course being a few months away from the primaries . . .” This just illustrates that, perhaps, a little more proofreading is necessary before you finalize your post. Also, I thought that the following sentences could have been combined into one in order to create a more smoothly flowing post: “Just a few miles away in Norwalk, a suburb of Des Moines, Ryan Mc Nulty, age seventeen, has become a volunteer for the Edwards campaign. He became involved after engaging into a discussion about the candidates with his government teacher.” I’m not quite sure what, if any, argument you are making in this piece. It seems to me that you are simply relating facts to the reader without analyzing them in order to come up with your own opinions on the topic. The opinions that are present appear to be widely accepted and I don’t think anyone would argue against them. This creates a static quality that prevents your post from having any clear movement toward a new or relatively unknown idea. Overall, I thought your post was very informative and well-supported, but could have used a thesis of some kind that presented some new, exciting take on the youth vote.
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