GOP, Dems Ponder How to Crack the Code of the Youth Vote
GOP, Dems Ponder How to Crack the Code of the Youth Vote
GOP, Dems Ponder How to Crack the Code of the Youth Vote
Voters under 30 turn out at consistently lower rates than older voters
10/2/2012
Both parties are seeking the magic formula to win the votes of the group that's the hardest to coax to the polls: young voters.
In 2008, 67% of Americans over 30 voted. Just 52% of adults under 30 did -- and that was the narrowest gap since 18-year-olds first got the vote in 1972. The under-30 vote has cracked the 50% mark just three times in that span.
Indiana Young Democrats president Sam Locke credits President Obama with turning out younger voters by focusing on issues younger voters care about, such as student loans and the job market. Indiana Federation of College Republicans chairman Ethan Manning disagrees -- he says younger voters care about the same issues as everyone else. That includes jobs, but also the broader economy.
Manning says younger voters are harder to motivate because they tend to be focused on their own concerns. Locke suggests younger voters are more skeptical of politicians in general, and more likely to tune out what they see as platitudes without specifics behind them.
But both Manning and Locke say reaching younger voters has gotten easier than it used to be, thanks to the proliferation of social media and Web-based news sites. Those sites' users skew sharply younger, and draw in potential voters who may have tuned out traditional media -- Locke says he seldom sees TV ads, for instance, because he watches most programs on TiVo and zaps past the commercials.
And while a Democratic-leaning youth vote is credited with forming part of Obama's winning coalition in 2008, Manning argues it's not an automatically Democratic constituency. He says Republicans have carried the under-30 vote in three of the 10 elections since 1972.
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