The Youth Vote

[Saphire]

My two sons spent several hours commuting from school to make it home to vote yesterday. My best friends sons did the same. My son at Boston College said most of his floor, which is from out-of-state, had already voted through absentee ballots. It is great to see all these young people making the effort

 

[battricia]

I'm youth, as is my boyfriend, and we both voted (This is our second election that we were old enough to vote, and we both voted both times). Infact I stood in line for 3.5 hours to vote this time.

tricia.

 

[Banzai]

I voted!

 

[Pugdog007]

I have some shocking news for the democrats. These cellphone-toting "youth" are being raised by conservatives. When my daughter turns 18 (in 2 years), I can assure you that she will vote Republican.

I think assuming that all of the youth votes are democrat is a flaw in their strategy. As is putting out the PDiddy and Michael Moore's to try and reel them in. The "vote or die" campaign was a joke and an insult to their intelligence.

 

[krissy3483]

I'm 99% positive that the 17% is 17% of all voters, not 17% of youth registered to vote. Since there was an increase in the number of voters overall this election, it means more youth voted this time than last time. I don't know if it was the 20 million mtv's rock the vote was hoping for, but I think that it is hard for a lot of youth to vote, especially those in college. If they didn't apply for an absentee ballot, it can be quite the trip home, and not everyone has a ride. Not making excuses, just a thought on why it wasn't as high as some expected.

 

[chadfromdallas]

Originally posted by Pugdog007
I have some shocking news for the democrats. These cellphone-toting "youth" are being raised by conservatives. When my daughter turns 18 (in 2 years), I can assure you that she will vote Republican.

I think assuming that all of the youth votes are democrat is a flaw in their strategy.

Yea, if you check out the statistics, its a very high probability of a child being politically based on their parent(s) position.

 

[septbride2002]

Most of my friends are considered the youth vote and majority of us voted. I can think of 3 off the top of my head that didn't - and yes I think they are idiots.

The truth is that most Youths don't think their opinion matters much. That is how my DH felt up until about 6 months ago. He figured none of the candidates were really worried about what his concerns were since they mostly talked Social Security, Medicare, The War (which he didn't believe in), and so on. We got into a deep discussion about the economy, the threat or non-threat of drafts and such and he started to realize how important his vote is.

I think it is hard for the youthful to get pumped up. And I'm talking the ones under the age of 25. They feel ignored, they feel that they will have a huge mess to clean up after all is said and done. This is generation X we are talking about. We dislike big corporations due to watching all of our parents lose their jobs, the majority of my friends have no religious affliations, we were brought up to be concerned about the environment - it is a very tough place to be in.

~Amanda