Study: College-aged to vote in record numbers

[flowomo]

from InsideHigherEd.com:

Displeased, Not Disaffected

They’ve been labeled politically apathetic, but college-aged students are planning to vote in record numbers on November 7, according to a poll from Harvard University’s Institute of Politics.

Thirty-two percent of 18- to 24-year-olds surveyed in the biannual poll on politics and public service said they “definitely will be voting” in the midterm elections, and three in four said the likelihood that they would cast ballots was at least 50 percent.

Young voter turnout has hovered around 21 percent in the last four midterm elections, an institute official said. Since the voting age became 18, the best non-presidential election turnout was 1982, when roughly 27 percent of this demographic group participated.

For the first time in six years of polling, the institute sought out 18- to 24-year-olds who are not attending a college or university. About half of the 2,546 people surveyed between October 4 and 16 were enrolled in an institution. Among all voters in the age group, recent college graduates were the most likely to say they “definitely” planned to vote, with the least likely being people who never attended college or are in high school. Undergraduates and graduate students were the subgroups most likely to indicate being “politically engaged or politically active".... (more)

http://insidehighered.com/news/2006/11/02/poll

[baldguy]

1. They did last time too.

They waited for hours in the rain to vote in Ohio, and Blackwell closed the polls on them.

[flowomo]

2. good news for Dems, given the internals....

"(Bush) has a 32 percent approval rating among this age group, according to the poll."

"Sixty-five percent of those surveyed indicated that 9/11 has had an effect on their views toward government, with about half saying that they are now more cynical. Six in 10 said the country is on “the wrong track.” Three in four surveyed said politics has become too partisan. And when asked, “Whom do you trust more to handle the war on Iraq: Democrats or Republicans?” 43 percent answered “neither,” compared with 32 percent for Democrats and 25 percent for Republicans."