WASHINGTON – In 2012, young American voters propelled President Barack Obama to victory in at least five key states.
Obama won voters aged 18 to 29 in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Nevada, Virginia and Florida, but he lost in those same states among voters above the age of 45.
Yet, youth voter participation dropped nationwide between 2008 and 2012 by about 6 percent. In 2008, young people had turned out for Obama in numbers not seen since the 1992 presidential election.
With midterm elections approaching in November, and Republicans eyeing the Democrat-controlled Senate, getting young voters to the polls could make the difference in determining which party can claim the Senate majority in the 2015 Congress. And as candidates begin to emerge for the 2016 presidential race, Republicans too are looking to appeal to the young voters that helped carry Obama to victory in the past two elections.
Information from CIRCLE (Ellen Garrison)
In 2008, young African Americans in particular took to the polls in the largest show of support for a presidential candidate by any racial/ethnic group since 1972, according to the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement – CIRCLE — at Tufts University. In 2012, African Americans still had the highest percentage of turnout of any racial group, but the number fell by 4.5 percent from the high of 58.2 percent in 2008.
Overall youth voter turnout dropped in 2012 to 45 percent of voters aged 18 to 29. Obama and the Democrats’ lead over the Republicans with youth dropped as well, from a 34-point lead to a 23-point lead, according to CIRCLE, an independent research group.
Peter Levine, the director of CIRCLE, said the youth turnout falloff between 2008 and 2012 was simply a return to the norm.
“[Youth voter turnout]’s deviated from the average at certain times between 1972 and now because of the political situation,” he said. Levine said Obama ran an effective race in 2008, but it wasn’t just the appeal of the young senator from Illinois. “A lot of young people voted against Republicans [in 2008 and 2004],” Levine said. “I think they were optimistic that a change in government would lead to a better economy.”
Levine said that something that is often missed when people talk about young American voters is that the youth vote is not monolithic.
Looking just at the “average overall overlooks the fact that some youth are much more likely to vote than others,” he said. For instance, a white college student in Minnesota is much more likely to vote than a poor African American in Mississippi, he said.
“Young people are likely to vote if someone actually asks them to vote,” he said, “and candidates can do that.”
Levine and CIRCLE work closely with Rock the Vote, a national organization that seeks to engage young people in the political process, especially voting in national and local elections. The organization has been working with young voters for 24 years.
Chrissy Faessen, vice president of Marketing and Communications for Rock the Vote, said that the biggest obstacle to young people voting is the registration process.
“It’s confusing, it’s daunting and not a lot of people don’t know where to go,” she said. So Rock the Vote walks high school and college students through the registration process – where to go and what to bring to register to vote.
“We get them over that barrier,” she said. After registration, the organization follows up by sending the young voters information about upcoming elections.
Rock the Vote connects with young people in high school through a 45-minute session called “Democracy Class”, where an instructor teaches students about the history of their voting rights and sets them up with the information they need to register and to vote.
The group reaches out to youth in high schools that don’t include the democracy class in their curriculum and also to college students by going to music festivals and campuses.
“We get the youth involved by going to where young people are and bringing them into our process,” Faessen said.
