Dissatisfied with status quo, more young people flock to polls

Young voter turnout rose 25 percent in this year's midterm elections compared to those in 2002, according to an analysis by Young Voter Strategies, a nonpartisan research group at The George Washington University.

Turnout among voters aged 18 to 29 grew to 10 million this year from 8 million in 2002. A similar analysis by researchers at the University of Maryland also found an increase. That study noted that 61 percent of young people voted Democrat, a greater percentage than any other age group.

"This is an extraordinary turnout for young voters," Peter Levine, who conducted the Maryland study, said in a statement, singling out dissatisfaction with the current state of politics and increased campaign efforts as possible explanations for the increased participation.

Levin also noted that young voters were "an especially high" proportion of voters in Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri and Montana — all states where Democrats won their Senate races, in two cases by close margins.

The victories in Missouri and Montana, along with the race in Virginia, were key to handing Democrats their new majority in the Senate. Virginia Sen. George Allen, the incumbent Republican, conceded yesterday to Democratic challenger Jim Webb.

Politics professor Christopher Achen cautioned, however, that the two studies, which were based on analyses of exit polls, should not be taken as fact.

"The difficulty with exit polls is that they are just a sample of voters and of people who are willing to answer questions, not a random sample of the population," Achen explained.

Though the studies suggest that youth turnout is up, the actual numbers will not be confirmed until the Census Bureau releases its biannual Current Population Survey, he added.

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Achen pointed to media attention as a possible explanation for the apparent increase in young voter turnout and suggested that well-educated youths would largely be responsible for this change.

"The biggest drop-off for any group ... between presidential and midterm elections is among well-educated young people," Achen noted. "Turnout in lower salient elections is pretty heavily driven by how much attention the election gets in the media, and the people who are most sensitive to the media are educated [youths.]"

The educated population is particularly influenced by the media because of a higher degree of personal interest and engagement, Achen said. "[They] haven't developed party attachments, so they vote based more on media coverage," he said.

Students at Princeton, meanwhile, attributed their own voter participation to interest in the Iraq War and the effect of being surrounded by other politically engaged students.

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"We're at a point where [voting] really matters," Hanaa Abdel Rohman '10 said, "because we're in Iraq, and we don't want to be. That's the whole issue, for me at least."

In the Maryland study, 43 percent of youths surveyed said that the war in Iraq is the most important current political issue to them. A majority — 58 percent — talked to friends and family about this election extensively.

Political conversations with classmates were a key voting motivator for Jennifer Schoppe '10. "Being at Princeton has opened up flows of political communication for me," she said.

Schoppe, who identifies herself as a conservative, explained that conversations with liberal voters on campus have spurred her to express her own political beliefs more actively.

P-Votes, a nonpartisan student group, also worked energetically this year to register more student voters.

"P-Votes was highly successful in registering students to vote in both [New Jersey] and by absentee ballot this year," co-chair Evan Magruder '08 said in an email. "We did see a substantial increase in student registrations." Princetonian contributor Doug Eshleman contributed reporting to this article.