Get the Facts

The Problem:
Since gaining the right to vote in 1972, young people have been turning out to vote in declining numbers.  The low point came during the 2000 election, one of the closest in United States history, when less than half the eligible 18- to 24-year-old population cast their ballots (36.1%).

We saw significant gains in the youth vote in 2004 when 47% of 18-24 year old voters turned out, resulting in a remarkable increase of 11 percentage points over 2000. In addition, the youth vote during the 2006 midterm elections saw measurable growth of 4% over that of 2002.

Despite these recent increases, the hurdles to youth voter participation have not been sufficiently cleared. Youth voting rates remain substantially lower than those of older voters (66% in 2004), and the majority of young people remain unconvinced that voting is an effective tool to better their communities. We are making progress, but there is more work to be done. 

Why Don’t Young People Vote?
Surveys indicate many reasons why young people aren’t voting. They feel it doesn’t make a difference, they aren’t registered, they don’t have enough information, or there isn’t enough time.

Two explanations for low turnout rates among young people have been bringing social scientists and practitioners together – one, that young people are seldom the focus of campaign messages, and two, that they are rarely the focus of person-to-person mobilization campaigns.

Studies by Yale Political Science Professors Don Green and Alan Gerber suggest that a large-scale peer-to-peer effort of voter contact targeted at young people can make a significant difference in the turnout rate of young voters, increasing youth turnout by 5 to 8 percentage points among those registered voters who are contacted. However, in order to conduct peer-to-peer contact operations and increase youth turnout on a significant scale, it’s necessary to first increase the pool of eligible voters, through a massive, targeted voter registration drive. Before the 2004 election, only 50.7% of eligible 18-24 year olds were registered to vote.

Why Young Voters Are Ignored:
Political campaign strategies emphasize a focus on voters that 1) will have a reliable voter turnout for a particular candidate, and 2) will be likely to turn out and vote for that particular candidate. This has been the conventional wisdom of campaigns for many years, and each year as youth voter turnout declines, that rationale, and a vicious “cycle of neglect,” are further perpetuated: because young people don’t vote, campaigns feel they shouldn’t waste resources targeting young voters, which only leads to continued disengagement of young voters. During the 2000 general election, for example, despite the $3 billion pumped into the campaign economy by Democrats and Republicans, not even one presidential campaign advertisement targeted young voters.

But things are looking up.  Of the approximately $4 billion spent in the 2004 election cycle, it’s estimated that $50 million was targeted towards young voters – a mere fraction of the total dollars spent, but the most ever targeted by organizations, political parties and candidates towards young people. With an 11 percentage point increase in turnout, it seems that those who spent resources on the youth vote saw a significant return on their investment.

Why Young Voters Shouldn’t be Ignored:
Because of the polarization of our nation’s electoral system, Republicans and Democrats are each battling over a handful of swing voters. Voter turnout and the discovery of “new” voters is more critical than ever. Any candidate looking for marginal votes needed to win will find that young voters – with the right approach – can easily become their “new” voters.

This new generation of young people, Generation Y, is different from their less-engaged older brothers and sisters of Generation X. Studies by CIRCLE, Harvard University and MTV reveal that Generation Y is paying greater attention to politics and is more involved in their communities. Demographic projections indicate that a decade from now this generation (which typically includes those 30-and-under) will make up 40% of the U.S. population. They could play a critical role in deciding elections over the next decade – if they continue to be politically engaged. Sixty-six million strong, Generation Y is approaching the size of the Baby Boomers (77 million in 2000) - and they are a generation still deciding which political party best represents them. Political parties and candidates stand to make significant gains from any early connection they make with this population.