Posted on 11/15/2004 8:45:41 AM PST by Tumbleweed_Connection
Ever since 18- to 20-year-olds were granted the right to vote in 1972, many of them haven’t exercised that privilege. And throughout modern history, those aged 21 to 29 have typically been less likely to vote than older Americans. After a brief spike in 1992, turnout among 18- to 29-year-olds in the 2000 presidential election dropped more than 20 percentage points below the national average—46 percent to the other age groups' 72 percent.
So when exit polls suggested many of America’s youth had stayed home once again this year, the media wasn’t surprised. The Associated Press wrote them off by early evening on Election Day, saying the turnout wasn’t the groundswell that had been expected. Final exit polls showed that 18-29-year-olds made up only 17 percent of all voters—similar to 2000’s turnout. "Yeah, we rocked the vote all right,” gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson griped to the Aspen (Colo.) Daily News on election night. “Those little bastards betrayed us again." And as a final insult, the Drudge Report posted this snarky headline: VOTE OR DIE OR WHATEVER.
Dumbfounded youth-vote organizers had spent months hitting bars, coffee shops and libraries with voter-registration forms and get-out-the-vote fliers, knocking on dormitory doors and text-messaging cell phones...
He may have been right: the exit polls didn’t tell the whole story. According to a new analysis of voter data, turnout among the under-30 set shot up 9 percent from 2000. The study, conducted by the University of Maryland’s Center for Information & Research on Civil Learning & Engagement (CIRCLE), found that at least 20.9 million in the 18-29-year-old bracket voted, compared with only about 16 million in 2000.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Kerry was going to need a lot more than 54/45 from the youth vote if he was going to win. So it turns out that young people did vote, but an awful lot of them voted wrong...
LOL That's not their formal name: The League of Pissed Off Voters. (seriously!)
Yep, more youth voters voted in this election than in 2000. The same can be said for EVERY segment of the population.
What is ommitted, however, is that the percentage of the youth vote is still small at less than 10% of all votes cast, about the same as in 2000.
17% .. says it right in the second paragraph.
Ping.
For some unfathomable reason I got a "Rock the Vote" e-mail which said that there was a 51% turnout among youth voters. So much for that propaganda.
Rock the vote... A non partisan organization?!?!
They're about as non partisan as moveon.org!
Let me guess. The guy who said this is a Dem.
Sorry about that, I was mixing my "First-time voter" (10%) and "youth vote" stats.
No problem, was easy to overlook. It's still a pathetically low number anyhow.
Source? Seems awfully high for what appears to be only a few hours of unskilled labor.
ping!
I'd prefer that nobody besides me vote in the next election.
There was an e-mail featured on one of the Sunday FoxNews shows that had that figure in it. The e-mailer was stating that he had done exit polls when he was in college for $200 and the main motivating factor for the pollers was to make some cash, being a student and all. I think that is what they make total, not for each individual they poll.
"Duh." ;O)
I did some surveys in college for $5 for each completed survey. You can guess the rest.
NEVER trust surveys. :)
Good for showing exit polls aren't the infallable source some radical leftists would have us believe.
This article has found a nice way of spinning the youth vote to comfort the activists.
The numbers of youth voters increased -- 20.9 million in 2004 vs. 16 million in 2000. And this, according to the article is the result of the diligent efforts of the (predominately left wing) 'get out the vote' organizations targeting youth. But the overall percentage of youth voters was the same in this election as in 2000 at 17%.
The overall turnout in this election for all ages was up from 2000 at the same percentage as the youth vote. So why did ~17% more non-youths vote in this election? Or did P Diddy influence the +30 crowd too?
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