Not Slackers After All?

MSNBC ^ | Nov. 12, 2004 | Sarah Childress

[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.

[Ryan Spock]

[qam1]

Xer Ping

Ping list for the discussion of the politics and social aspects that directly effects Gen-Reagan/Generation-X (Those born from 1965-1981) including all the spending previous generations (i.e. The Baby Boomers) are doing that Gen-X and Y will end up paying for.

Freep mail me to be added or dropped. See my home page for details and previous articles.

[usflagwaver]

I was also wondering how the military vote was counted. A large percentage of the military voters are within these age brackets. I think that in this election, a larger than normal percentage of the military voted, therefore, increasing the youth vote, although I think they were more influenced by their scorn of John Kerry as Commander In Chief than by anything that P Diddy said.

[LibertarianInExile]

For some reason, people are very quick to fall back into assuming that young people are lazy and apathetic,” Donovan says.

Gee, why would that be? Perpetuating stereotypes isn't something the media does at all. /sarcasm

Unless it comes to Gen X, or the GOP, of course.

[Mr. Silverback]

How does this %$/$% spilt figure into what the DLC was saying the other day, that the Dems only won two deomgraphics: High school droputs and postgrad whites?

[Mr. Silverback]

Oops! I meant to say 54/45 spilt. Sorry it looked like I was swearing, I didn't notice I was pressing on the shift button!

[gridlock]

High school dropouts and post-graduates went Donk, huh? Why does that not surprise me. Fortunately, there are a lot more people in the middle.