The mid-term elections are over and the dust is settling in the political sphere, which means that the hype of politics will inevitably fade out of the general consciousness until the next large political event. With the excitement dying down analysts are asking why the democrats failed to bring out Obama’s youth voters to maintain control of the House of Representatives and lost a considerable number of Senate seats this election. Even with the significant democratic loses however some view this election season as successful in reaching the youth.
According to Professor Jeremy Varon of the New School the youth has made a huge difference in politics in the past 60 years. In the era of the 1960’s the youth stood behind their political beliefs at massive demonstrations that were televised all over the country. That political climate however, moved the youth to stand behind the causes they believed in not necessarily the candidates. This meant that although the youth felt passionately about politics of the time, their enthusiasm was not channeled towards taking key political positions.
“The youth demographic became initially more important when they became mobilized in protest politics—which is when political issues take precedence over an actual candidate,” said Deva Woodley, a New school University Professor who teaches politic science and sociology.
Though the 1960’s proved to be a time when the youth was very invested in politics, that trend was ultimately short-lived and was followed by a period of lacking youth interest during the 70’s and 80’s.
“By the mid to late seventies this politically active youth almost completely disappeared and the notion that the youth don’t vote and don’t care surfaced,” said Professor Varon of the New School.
The presidential election of 2008 showed a 51 percent youth turnout—relatively larger than past years because of the campaign tactics Obama used to reach the youth. However it seems that the morale of the youth is dwindling based on a significantly lower, turnout for the mid-term elections. In the recent mid-term elections youth turnout was approximately 20 percent. This means it dropped nearly 30 percent since the presidential election leading some to speculate that the youth is disengaged and disillusioned by politics.
“Thirty-six percent of young people said it wouldn’t make a difference who they voted for.” said Political Analyst William John Cox. “Young people are carrying the burden. The government has to change for the youth to change.”
It isn’t hard to imagine that the youth are indeed disinterested in politics after comparing some of the numbers from the 2008 presidential election and the recent mid-term. Not only did the youth voter turn out decrease significantly between 2008 and 2010 but it also showed about a 5 percent decrease since the last mid term election of 2006 when 25 percent of youth voted. If one takes into account the tendency for young voters to lean towards democratic candidates illustrated by the 2008 National Election Poll, the landslide of republican victories may also be very telling because it suggests that the youth didn’t make it to the polls for the democrats.
“I’m lazy. Plus I don’t care. It’s all just so far from home,” said Alex age 21 of Gramercy, New York City when asked why he didn’t vote. In response to being asked if his decision not to vote mattered he responded: “Probably in a small way, who knows, maybe my not voting has the largest impact.”
In all the republicans gained control of 61 seats in the House of Representatives giving them a total of 240 compared to the democrats with only 190. In the senate, the Democrats although they maintained control, lost another six seats closing the wide margin between the two parties.
Still some believe that this year’s mid-term was in some way a success for the involvement of the youth in politics. According to CIRCLE analysis regions that were reached by the “Vote Again 2010,” a coalition of youth engagement campaigns, had a significant increase in youth voter turnout compared to past years.
“Compared to 2006 this was an extremely successful mid term election because we registered 250,000 more (young voters),” said Maegan Carberyy communications director at “Rock the Vote,” a campaign dedicated to young voter registration.
The question is what happened on Election Day to the 250,000 newly registered young voters that democrats were counting on to keep hold of the house and the senate? There is no doubt that campaigns from both parties that cater specifically at getting the youth to vote are now becoming increasingly important in every election. The problem seems to be that even when youth campaigns manage to get voters registered it is still difficult to get them to come out on Election Day.
“The youth vote is a huge resource [that] from now on candidates will tap into,” said Deva Woodley of the New School.
However the great decrease in youth turnout from 2008 to 2010 seems to point out an easing up on the part of those campaigns. After various statistics were gathered it was clear that disenchantment hit Obama’s democratic youth voters hardest since 2008. According to the Pew Research Center, about 27 percent of young democrats reported thinking seriously about the midterm elections, down 20 percent from 2006. From the other side, 39 percent of young Republican voters reported giving serious consideration to the mid term.
These statistics seem to confirm the pressing fear in the White House of a lost youth voting population that Obama is now working to correct. As Isaac Wood, a political analyst at the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, told reporters before the election:
“There’s a palpable fear in the White House that the 2008 Obama voters are going to drop off in a huge way and not show up at the polls in 2010.”
The Internet was the place where huge campaigning leaps were made both during the 2008 and 2010 elections towards getting the youth population involving. It seemed that this type of campaigning was to be the way of the future in terms of getting to the youth voting population because it has become one of the most important social environments for the youth.
“He (Obama) was groundbreaking in mobilizing the youth by doing online geared campaigning—before [there wasn’t] much youth interest,” said Deva Woodley of the New School.
According to the Pew Research Center 72 percent of all 18-29 year olds are in some way linked into a social media website such as facebook or myspace, which means that online media sites are a battleground worth fighting for. Such features as an “I voted” badge were added to the facebook site although the motivation behind this move is not necessarily to increase youth voting turnout.
“Because voting rates of young people tend to be relatively low, efforts to get them to vote almost by definition have to be special and not purely conventional,” said the New school’s Professor Plotke.
Though most of the campaigns like “Rock the Vote” that took hold in the 2008 election claim not to have eased up for the mid term, there is a sense that this election simply had lower stakes and thus young voters were not interested enough to come out. Ultimately it remains unclear how exactly to sway the youth vote and thus youth campaigners can only remain determined and continue to approach the youth in creative ways.
As Maegan Carberyy of “Rock the Vote” said: “Were always looking for new ways to attract a bigger following, that’s something that never will stop.”
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