Winter break, Iowa and the youth vote at the coming caucus.

[rinsd]

Moved-up Iowa caucuses could hinder youth vote

By Jill Lawrence, USA TODAY

DES MOINES — Democrat Barack Obama is generating palpable excitement on Iowa campuses. But he's up against both history and new challenges as he tries to turn that energy into votes in the state's leadoff presidential caucuses.

In 2004, according to the state Democratic Party, only 3.9% of 124,000 Democratic caucus participants were age 18 to 24. And that was for Jan. 19 caucuses. This time they are on Jan. 3, when virtually all Iowa colleges are on winter break.

"It's clearly an untapped resource," Democratic pollster Geoffrey Garin says of the youth vote. "Many candidates have believed that their path to victory in Iowa was to vastly expand the universe of caucus participants and bring in new people, particularly young people. It hasn't quite worked out before."

The crestfallen of yesteryear include Bill Bradley in 2000 and Howard Dean in 2004. This time around, says Alec Schierenbeck, 20, a Grinnell College junior who heads Iowa College Democrats, candidates are making "unprecedented efforts" to organize young people. It's easier than ever, he adds, because of "indispensable" social networking websites such as Facebook.

More at the link - http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2007-11-11-youth-vote_N.htm

[MaineDem]

1. Can they "vote" by absentee?

We can do that for our caucuses here in Maine.

[SteppingRazor]

2. I don't get why they assume that the caucus being on winter break is a hindrance.

In fact, if you're a college student home on winter break and you're just bumming around your hometown, wouldn't you be more likely to go to a caucus than if you were on campus and had classes and a social life to deal with?

[tritsofme]

3. Doubtful if you live hours away

Or even in another state.

Chicago area students have a very large presence in the big Iowa schools, and I assume many college students are either working part-time jobs or vacationing during this time.

[SteppingRazor]

4. But what if you're registered to vote in your hometown?

And, I totally grant you that there's a pretty large presence of Chicago-area folks (I don't actually know this, but you sound like you do! :) ), but in-state students will always dominate the landscape at any collage, simply because of tuition.