Youth voter turnout Tuesday was the highest
it has been in years, influencing crucial congressional and
gubernatorial races across the country.
Approximately
10 million voters under the age of 30 turned out to vote in the midterm
elections this year, according to a study conducted by the University
of Maryland's Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and
Engagement.
The number of youth voters had increased drastically
from the 2002 midterm elections, with a jump from 8 million to 10
million. This year, the youth vote accounted for 13 percent of the
overall vote in the entire nation, according to the study.
The
Democrats, who seem to have been the most successful in courting the
youth vote, benefited from the increase the most this Tuesday,
successfully recapturing Congress and picking up several key
governorships.
"Nationwide, in House races, 61 percent of young
people voted for Democratic candidates - the highest proportion for any
age group," CIRCLE Director Peter Levine said in a prepared statement.
It
appears that the youth vote factored in locally as well. The New Jersey
Public Interest Research Group's New Voters Project was active in the
weeks leading up to Election Day, as well as on the day itself. NJPIRG
attempted to register as many students as possible to vote.
"We
registered 3,000 students to vote this year between the Rutgers Camden,
New Brunswick and Newark campuses," said Sarah Clader, head of the New
Brunswick student chapter of NJPIRG.
The Rutgers Voter
Mobilization Project went exceptionally well, she said. Volunteers
talked to more than 1,000 students statewide and reminded them to vote.
"Most students were excited to vote," she said.
This is the third consecutive year in which voter turnout in areas targeted by NJPIRG has increased.
"This
is definitely part of a trend," Clader said. "We're different from
young people in the past, and we show that we actually care about
politics, the polls, and our future."
One thing may be certain:
With the 2006 elections over, it would behoove major parties to start
focusing more on the concerns of American youth before 2008.
The
voter group that was once primarily disregarded could prove to be the
deciding factor in electing the nation's next president.
