Study: Students apathetic about voting in this year's elections

Factors like the economic recession, perceptions of increased political partisanship and events like the BP oil spill have left college students and other members of the Millennial Generation less interested in politics as midterm elections approach, the survey report said.

Only 27 percent of respondents said they would definitely vote in November’s election, compared to 36 percent who said they would do so in a survey conducted 11 months ago.

“Suddenly, the generation that in 2008 proudly made the difference as caucus-goers in Iowa for Senator Barack Obama tell us less than three years later that they are so discouraged with politics that they may sit this one out,” the report stated.

The survey, which was conducted from Sept. 24 to Oct. 4 and surveyed about 2,000 respondents aged 18–29, also found that President Obama’s popularity has dropped below 50 percent for the first time.

Among those surveyed, only 18 percent said that the nation was generally on the right track, compared to 23 percent last February.

Obama’s job approval among all Americans has reached an all-time low of 44.7 percent, according to a Gallup Poll conducted from July 20 to Oct. 19.

The number of University students who chose to register directly through P-Votes, a student group created in 2004 to facilitate voter registration and education, may indicate declining interest in recent years.

P-Votes directly registered roughly 500 students in 2008, but that figure slipped to roughly 300 this year.

The most recent Institute of Politics survey is the organization’s 18th poll of young adults on political issues. It had a margin of error of 2.2 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level.

“In 2008, Millenials took control of their own destiny, entered the political process and changed the direction of the country,” Director of Polling at the Institute of Politics John Della Volpe said in a press release.

“Two years later, the challenges they face as a generation could not be higher,” he said. “Let’s hope they reverse the current decline in interest and participation, and continue the process of becoming this era’s defining political force.”