Five myths about young voters

[kentuck]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/22/AR2010102202699.html?hpid%3Dtopnews&sub=AR

<snip>
That's the worry among Democrats and a constant refrain from both sides: Young voters are fickle and will stay home. It's just one of the myths being peddled about young voters and what it will take to get them to the polls next week.

1. Democrats need young voters to show up Nov. 2. Too bad they won't.

Both parties should be worried about youth turnout, but not because young people don't want to vote. In a recent Rock the Vote poll, we found that they are paying attention to the election but that most don't relate to the political parties or their bickering. They do, however, relate to individual candidates who address issues they care about, such as jobs, the economy, keeping college affordable, energy independence and same-sex marriage.

<snip>
Though the Obama campaign executed an incredibly effective youth-voter strategy in 2008, the country's major political parties and midterm candidates do not have a strong relationship with young people today. Many congressional incumbents who are now struggling won their seats on the swell of young-voter turnout in the last election, so you'd think they would have spent time engaging these same voters to win again. They didn't.

Instead, it has seemed at times that we've been heading backward. Young people don't show up for midterms, many campaigns seemed to assume, so the key fight is for older voters. Convince established voters to change their lifelong habits (get a Democrat to vote Republican or vice versa, or convince a lapsed voter to show up), and you could win. But the 2008 election showed that persuading people to change their minds isn't the only strategy: It is possible to expand the electorate if you can excite young people.

........more

[Radical Activist]

1. The party mostly ignored young voters from '94-'06.

That's why Green Party chapters were bigger than College Democrats on many college campuses. Breaking that trend was one of the best things the Obama campaign did. It's too bad many of the regulars in the party still don't understand their mistake. Most politicians and the press will probably never get how much their failure to take action on climate change is hurting them with young voters.

[bigwillq]

2. The Green Party chapter was huge

on my campus in the 2000s, especially during the 2000 election.

[HockeyMom]

3. One of my daughters is a teacher and the other a lesbian

They have both voted in every single election since they turned 18. Think the REPUKES stand any change with either of them? They are both considered DIRT to the Republican Party, and both my daughter know this.

[EC]

4. The students at the colleges Obama and Tweety have

been visiting seem energized to me. When Tweety asked how many of them were not voting it was silent - so I think they'll be out voting...we'll see if they will be allowed since most of the dirty tricks have been targeting students and minorities...