Voting 101
The Problem
Until the recent turnaround
witnessed during the 2004 elections, voting rates among youth had steadily
declined since 18 year-olds first won the right to vote in 1972. Yet, even with these encouraging increases in
turnout, overall youth voter turnout remains too low. For example, less than half of eligible young
people voted in 2004, compared to nearly 70 percent of voters forty-five and
older.
It’s critical to
significantly boost youth voting for three key reasons. First, young people are
the generation that will be most impacted by our most pressing issues (global
warming, financial security) and by engaging them now, it’s more likely that
they’ll be a driving force towards the solutions to these issues. Second, youth
are a big and growing portion of the electorate (nearly 25% in 2008) and as
such have the potential to make big impacts on these issues. Third, youth voting habits are formed early -
getting more young people to vote now results in a more active citizenry in the
future.
Why Don’t Young People Vote?
Surveys indicate many reasons why young people aren’t voting. They feel it
doesn’t make a difference, they aren’t registered, they don’t have enough
information, or there isn’t enough time.
Two explanations for low turnout rates among young people have been bringing
social scientists and practitioners together – one, that young people are
seldom the focus of campaign messages, and two, that they are rarely the focus
of person-to-person mobilization campaigns.
Studies by Yale Political Science Professors Don Green and Alan Gerber suggest
that a large-scale peer-to-peer effort of voter contact targeted at young
people can make a significant difference in the turnout rate of young voters,
increasing youth turnout by 5 to 8 percentage points among those registered
voters who are contacted. However, in order to conduct peer-to-peer contact
operations and increase youth turnout on a significant scale, it’s necessary to
first increase the pool of eligible voters, through big, targeted voter
registration drive.
Why Young Voters Are Ignored
Political campaign strategies emphasize a focus on voters that 1) will have a
reliable voter turnout for a particular candidate, and 2) will be likely to
turn out and vote for that particular candidate. This has been the conventional
wisdom of campaigns for many years, and each year as youth voter turnout
declines, that rationale, and a vicious “cycle of neglect,” are further
perpetuated: because young people don’t vote, campaigns feel they shouldn’t
waste resources targeting young voters, which only leads to continued
disengagement of young voters. During the 2000 general election, for example,
despite the $3 billion pumped into the campaign economy by Democrats and
Republicans, not even one presidential campaign advertisement targeted young
voters.
But things are looking up. Of the approximately $4 billion spent in the
2004 election cycle, it’s estimated that $50 million was targeted towards young
voters – a mere fraction of the total dollars spent, but the most ever targeted
by organizations, political parties and candidates towards young people. With
an 11 percentage point increase in turnout, it seems that those who spent
resources on the youth vote saw a significant return on their investment.
Why Young Voters Shouldn’t be Ignored
Something big is happening in our democracy – young people are voting.
Already, young people turned out in record numbers at the nation’s first
caucus and primary contests of 2008. The youth vote:
Not only did young voters turn out in
big numbers, but they were also critical to deciding the winners of both these
contests. Youth voter turnout in 2008 primary and
caucus contests.
Young
voters will play a critical role in the 2008 elections. Not only are they
turning out to the polls in increasing numbers, but young people (18-31 year
olds) represent nearly one-quarter of the national electorate.
The evidence shows that when politicians talk to us about
the issues that we care about most, that we turn out to vote in higher numbers.
That’s where the Student PIRGs’
What’s Your Plan? campaign comes into play. Rather than wait for the
candidates to come to us - we’re going straight to them to ask them what their
plans are on key youth issues such as global warming and higher education.
Since the spring of 2007, hundreds of young volunteers have hit the campaign
trail, attending barbeques, photo-ops, town halls and fundraisers, to ask all of
the Presidential candidates, face to face: What’s Your Plan? So far we’ve
asked the candidates more than 100 times, and it’s working. Not only are the
candidates talking about the issues that we care about, but they are making it
a point to reach out to young voters.
The evidence also shows that outreach works - especially when
it’s peer to peer. That’s where the Student PIRGs come in – using our time
tested and academically reviewed peer to peer methods to mobilize youth.
Since 2003, we’ve registered more than 600,000 18-30 year olds and made 650,000
personalized, peer to peer contacts to turn young people out to the polls. An analysis
of our work found that young people contacted by the Student PIRGs’ New Voters
Project turned out at a rate 13 percentage points higher than a group of
demographically similar individuals who also registered to vote within six
months of the election.
View the following fact sheets by the Center for
Information & Research on Civic Learning & Engagement (CIRCLE):
Some Highlights:
The
Youth Vote in 2006
The Youth Vote in 2004
Voter Turnout Among Men and Women
College Students in the 2004 Election
Electoral Engagement Among Non-College Attending Youth
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