Mid term elecetions Story
The mid-term election 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 everyone is 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.
Historically speaking, there has been a lot of research on “the youth” as a separate demographic—a transitional stage between childhood and adulthood. In this country the youth represents a demographic defined by its often-progressive attitudes and desire for social change. From the perspective of media voting campaigns the youth constitute a highly volatile demographic that is ripe for voting recruitment.
“We have pointed out that one dimension of popular conceptions of youth in the media involves the positioning of young people as a threat to accepted social values, and as likely to engage in risky behaviors,” says Johanna Wyn in her book “Rethinking Youth.”
According to Professor Varon of the Newschool the youth has made a huge difference in politics in the past 60 years. The most readily available example is probably the 1960 when the youth stood behind 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, which pointed to the general lack of experience in the political world that characterizes the youth.
“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 Newschool University Proffesor who teaches politic science and sociology.
Though the 1960’s proved to be a time when the youth was highly involved in politics that trend was ultimately short-lived until the recent resurgance after the 70’s and 80’s.
“By the mid to late seventies this politically active youth completely declined and the notion that the youth don’t vote and don’t care surfaced,” said Professor Varon also at the Newschool.
After a relatively large population of young voters overwhelmed the polls in the 2008 presidential election it seems that the morale of the youth is dwindling based on a significantly lower 20 percent turnout for the mid-term elections. In the recent mid-term elections youth turnout was approximately 30 percent lower than it was in the presidential election leading some to speculate that the youth is disengaged and disillusioned by politics.
“36% 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, the landslide of republican victories may also be very telling. 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 lost another 6 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.
“We had a pretty successful mid term election season registering over 300,000 new youth voters.” Said Maegan Carberyy communications director at “Rock the Vote,” a campaign dedicated to young voter registration. “Compared to 2006 this was an extremely successful mid term election because we registered 250,000 more (young voters).”
The question is, was there a significant difference in youth campaign tactics 2008 presidential elections and the mid term elections this Novemeber? 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 youth vote is a huge resource [that] from now on candidates will tap into,” says Woodley.
However the great decrease in youth turnout from 2008 to 2010 suggests a 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 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 youth Republican voters reported giving serious consideration to the mid term.
These statistics seem to confirm the pressing fear in the Whitehouse 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 another place where huge campaigning leaps were made both during the 2008 and 2010 elections towards getting the youth population involving.
This type of campaigning seems to be the way of the future in terms of getting to the youth voting population.
“He (Obama) was groundbreaking mobilizing the youth by doing online geared campaigning toward the youth, before [there wasn’t] much youth interest,” 
said Woodley.
With 97 percent of all youth in America in some way linked into a social media website such as facebook or myspace, this is a battleground worth fighting for to gain the attention and enthusiasm of the youth. 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. Such unconventional methods of getting to the youth have been common since the 1960’s.
“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 Newschool’s Professor Plotke.
Though most of the campaigns 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 campaigns 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.”