http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/11/09/youth_vote/print.htmlThe future of America is blue
Almost 5 million more young people voted this time, and most went Democratic.- - - - - - - - - - - -
By Lisa Chamberlain
Nov. 9, 2004 | Back in the hopeful days of August, a small group of newly minted political activists gathered in an apartment on St. Marks Place in New York's East Village -- the same street where Abbie Hoffman hatched the yippie movement and Andy Warhol opened the Electric Circus. Downtown for Democracy -- an arts-affiliated political action committee staffed mostly by people in their 20s and backed by New York's cultural glitterati -- was only a year old and just getting started. The activists were discussing big plans to get out the youth vote by loading up buses of volunteers and driving to Ohio to throw DJ parties and give away free T-shirts in exchange for voter registrations and contact information. Nearly everyone in the room had never been politically active before, and some had never voted.
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According to a report by the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE), almost 5 million more young people voted in 2004 than in 2000, an increase of 9.3 percent. The reason the youth vote as a percentage of the electorate stayed the same is simple: More people in every demographic group voted in 2004. Looking at the youth vote merely as a percentage of the overall vote to gauge their effect on the election is misleading.
"The report that young voters didn't turn out is just so wrong," says Kelly Young, executive director of 21st Century Democrats, an organization that has been working to get out the youth vote since 1985. Having started with a mere $8,000, the group is now the 13th largest PAC in the country. "The youth vote was up nationally, but that's not really the best way to measure it.
In swing states, where the youth vote was really targeted, it was up even more." Some estimate it was up there by as much as 12 percent.Although the final tally has yet to be fully dissected, 21st Century Democrats has dramatic
numbers from Franklin County, Ohio, which includes Columbus, home to Ohio State University. In the precincts where the group focused most intently, the youth vote accounted for
upward of 85 percent of the total vote, and Democratic turnout in those areas jumped by 128 percent. In the same precincts, the Republican turnout was up only 6 percent. "What it shows is that young voters contributed substantially to the increase in the Democratic vote. Lines at 6:30 a.m. were already an hour long, so students had to really stick with it to vote. The main voting place at Ohio State closed at 7:30. People were still voting at 9:30."
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