On the heels of a new poll that shows that more and more young people are paying attention to the 2008 Presidential Election, young people are hot on the trail of the all the Presidential candidates this weekend to ask them: What’s Your Plan? on key youth issues like global warming and college affordability. Young people will be at both the PBS Democratic Forum at Howard University in Washington D.C. tonight, and the Iowa Presidential Candidates Forum, with Republican candidates, in Des Moines on Saturday.

“Young people are going to vote in 2008 and will vote even more if the Presidential candidates engage them on the issues that they care about.  Young people aren’t interested in big smiles and Madison Avenue campaign slogans. They want the candidates to engage them with substance, to have real conversations about critical issues that they care about,” said Ellynne Bannon, the Student PIRGs’ New Voters Project Director.

According to the poll, 58 percent of young people say that they are paying attention to the 2008 elections, compared to just 35 percent at this point in 2004.  In addition, nearly 75 percent of young people say that they are registered to vote, and of those who aren’t registered, 77 percent say that they will register before the 2008 election.

The event is part of What’s Your Plan? a new national campaign that calls upon all the Presidential candidates to pay attention to young people and address key youth issues such as global warming, college affordability, health care, and financial security. 

“Ice caps are melting, sea levels are rising, and we’re going to get hit with more and more severe storms. We can’t afford a meltdown on global warming. My generation will be the most impacted by this issue, so we’re not waiting for the candidates to come to us – we’re here today so that we can go directly to them to ask: What’s Your Plan? to stop global warming,” said Sarah Clader with the Student PIRGs and a Rutgers University student.

Since the campaign launch, young people have spoken to almost all of the Presidential candidates including: Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani, Barack Obama, John Edwards, Duncan Hunter, John Cox, Bill Richardson, Chris Dodd, John McCain, Tommy Thompson, Dennis Kucinich, Hillary Clinton, Sam Brownback, Mike Huckabee and Joe Biden.

Youth voting has undergone a significant transformation over the past two election cycles.  In 2004, young voter (18-29 year olds) turnout was up 9 percent over 2000 levels – a rate three times higher than the general population.  In 2006, young voter turnout increased by 2 million votes while turnout among all ages increased only moderately. More information on young voters.

The poll also found that nearly 60 percent of young Americans believe that government policies concerning student loans and grants are very important and that when it comes to party affiliation, 36 percent of young people consider themselves Independents.

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The Student Public Interest Research Groups (PIRGs) are non-partisan, student directed, state-based organizations that work to solve public interest problems related to the environment, consumer protection and government reform. www.studentpirgs.org

What’s Your Plan? is a project of the Student PIRGs’ New Voters Project and allied youth organizations. The Student PIRGs’ New Voters Project is the nation’s largest youth voter mobilization campaign.  Since 2003, the project has registered more than 600,000 young people to vote and made 650,000 peer-to-peer contacts to encourage young people to turn out to the polls on Election Day. www.newvotersproject.org