ELECTION 2008
'Youthquake' could shake up the election on TuesdayBY DAWSON BELL and MARGARITA BAUZA • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS • November 1, 2008
Is 2008 the year of the young voter?
Lots of signs point in that direction. Consider:
• Barack Obama's rock star-style rallies on college campuses across the country (including one attended by 15,000 to 20,000 at Michigan State University on Oct. 2).
• A surge in registrations among all voters, including those younger than 30.
• A trend that saw 2004 and 2006 bring an uptick in young voter participation after two decades of decline.
Obama, with his relative youth, cool and intense outreach, is getting most of the credit.
Lauren Meunier, 20, a junior at MSU, said: "I feel like on a college campus that almost every kid is an Obama kid."
Then again, maybe not.
Despite all the hullabaloo about young people and the 2008 election, as a general rule, 18-to-late twentysomethings don't care about voting as much as their elders.
The Gallup Organization, which has been tracking voter behavior for more than half a century, reported last week that registration, interest in the election and likelihood of voting remains measurably lower among 18- to 29-year-olds than among those older than 30. The under 30 "share of the likely voting electorate ... appears as if it will be similar to what it has been in past elections," Gallup's pollsters said.
Even in 2004, when interest in the election spiked among young people, only 49% of eligible voters younger than 30 went to the polls. That compared with 68% among those older than 30.
Activists pushing voter participation by young people argue this year is different. ......(more)
The complete piece is at:
http://www.freep.com/article/20081101/NEWS15/811010379/1215/NEWS15