The Youth Vote Election Coverage

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 it would be expected that I came out this past November 2nd in support of his fellow democrats. Unfortunately like so many other youth voters I found myself absent from the nearest polling stations. According to The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement 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. Republicans gained control on the House of Representatives and are only 6 seats away from having a majority in the Senate. Republicans seem to be well on there way to decisive victories come 2012.

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

28-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”.

Keli Goff, a political analysis for many major political news sources reiterated what Nancy had said; “ Voter turnout is always lower in mid-term elections across all demographics. 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; the lack of turn out from this demographic in the 2010 election may mean that this coalition is weakening.

In 2008 the celebrity presence in democratic campaigning was much more emphasized. Celebrities such as George Clooney, Seth Rogan, Jamie Foxx and Oprah all contributed funds to democrats on the campaign trail. During mid term elections this presence is 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. Over the past several years we had a lot of success using social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook”.

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 10% of eligible youth voters actually voted.

This lack of translation is because of the lack of emphasis on the mid term vote says Meagan, “ 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 import 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 is something that has been present 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.

John Cox, a political analysis and former activist said, ”36% 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 on young, old, left and right seemed to have fallen apart during the recent mid term elections. The lack of recent democratic support had direct connection with the publics 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 our countries government has ever seen. Republicans gained control of the house and put themselves in position to gain control of the senate two years from now. The youth vote which helped lead Barack Obama into office was non-factor in the past election. If Obama and democrats want to have something to celebrate come 2012 they must re kindle their connection with the youth as well as all other demographics.