The Youth Vote in the Mid Term Ellections DRAFT 2

Patrick Nicholas
Mid Term Election Coverage
November 21st, 2010

The 2010 mid-term elections marked the half way point of Barack Obama’s Presidency. As an ardent supporter of Mr. Obama one would think that I came out this past November in support of his fellow democrats. Unfortunately like so many other youth voters I did not make my way to the nearest polling stations. According to The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement [CIRCLE} only an estimated 20.9% of eligible youth voters actually voted this past Election Day. The absence of the youth vote may be one of the major factors behind the republican’s largest victory since 1948.

Two years ago Barack Obama lead democrats to decisive victories in the House of Representatives as well as the Senate—two weeks ago those victories seem to have been long forgotten. This past election republicans gained control of the House of Representatives and are only six seats away from having a majority in the Senate. If republicans can emulate these results in 2012, they put themselves in position for major victories.

The past election results may have been influenced but the lack of the youth demographic. The youth presence in the past mid-term election did drop significantly from 2008. According to an AOL News report youth voter turnout was 10% less then it was two years ago. But why was this? I turned to the streets of New York for some answers.

Twenty eight-year-old Nancy Bessel’s said, “ As a new mother I didn’t have time to vote. My husband made it to the polls but it is not a presidential election so I did not think it was that important”.

Dave, a Gramercy resident said, “ I just don’t care at all. I never feel like it matters [in 2008] I voted for him because he’s black and it’s a big step for civil rights.”

From the streets I then turned to Keli Goff, a political analysis for many major political news sources. Nancy said; “ Voter turnout is always lower in mid-term elections across all demographics.” I was curious to see if Obama influenced voter turnout. “I think the primary difference in this particular election is that Obama motivated more young voters to turn out in 2008. His absence on the ballot in this election may have made them less inclined to turn out”.

The youth vote was a major part of Obama’s coalition in 2008 according to Rock the Vote; the lack of turn out from this demographic in the 2010 election may mean that this coalition is weakening.

In 2008 Voter turnout increased for a variety of reason. Some say the celebrity presence was a major factor. Celebrities such as George Clooney, Seth Rogan, Jamie Foxx and Oprah all contributed large sums of money to democrats on the campaign trail. During mid term elections this presence was not felt. This could potentially contribute to less youth voters coming out during the mid term elections.

I spoke to Maegan Carbery at the Rock the Vote about the methods they used to attract younger voters. “ Most of our success comes from reaching out to the youth in places they already are such as music festivals, college and professional sporting events and major universities” Carberry said. “Over the past several years we had a lot of success using social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook.”

The Youth Vote was extremely important two years ago. According to statistics released by Rock the Vote, the 2008 Presidential election was the largest turn out of youth voters in history having over 52% of youth voters going to the polls. These numbers did not translate to the 2010 election when only about 20% of eligible youth voters actually voted. This lack of turn could be because of the lack of emphasis on the mid term vote says Meagan Carbery. “ There is much more enthusiasm on our side of things as well as the voters is major election. People are attracted to the importance of presidential elections.”

Barack Obama showed us in 2008 how important the youth vote could be. As we look back at the history of this demographic it is apparent that the youth age bracket is often absent from the voting process. David Plotke, a professor of political science at The New School for Social Research, spoke about the history of the youth vote.
“Young people are usually less engaged by politics than older people, and it is not because they are disenchanted. They have not usually been involved much period. As people get older they tend to develop more and deeper connections to the political and social world, via families, kids, jobs, communities and so forth. This is how it has been for a while”.

The absence of the youth vote has been around for decades. According to Rock the Vote the numbers do seem to be on the rise, recording an increase in registered youth voters each electoral year. Between 2006 and 2008 Rock the Vote had a 25% increase in registered youth voters.

John Cox, a political analyst and former activist said, ”thirty six percent of young people said it would not make a difference that they voted”. Historically this demographic has been absent from the polling station but it is apparent, through the results of recent elections that candidates must capture the youth bracket in order to win a major election.”
In 2008 Rock the Vote registered 2.5 million new young voters, many of these voters helped Barack Obama win the presidency. His coalition seemed to have fallen apart during the recent mid term elections. The lack of recent democratic support seems to have some sort of connection with the public’s over all feeling that Barack Obama is not instituting his idea of change in the appropriate manor.

The 2010 mid term elections marked one of the largest shifts of power in the United States. “ Since 2004, young voters have been one of the strongest Democratic constituencies,” said CIRCLE director Peter Levine. “Democrats need to engage them better than they did in 2010[to win in 2012].”