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Please, Just Try to Get Us to Vote

By Matt Zeitlin - Jun 11th, 2008 at 6:30 pm

Michael Connery has a fantastic post at The Nation debunking some myths about the much-discussed youth vote. The most persistent misconception about young voters is that 1) young voters don’t care, and 2) because they don’t care, they won’t turn out and so it’s pointless to try to appeal to them. It’s easy to see how this can become a self-fulfilling prophecy: If you’re convinced that young people simply won’t vote, you’ll never invest resources in trying to get them to, and–voila!–they won’t. But, not surprisingly, when campaigns do make a serious efforts–beyond having celebrities do endorsements–they can snag young voters.

As Connery puts it:

Myth 1 - The youth never turn out. This is false. Young voters will turn out if you ask them, the problem is that the Democratic Party stopped asking a long time ago. Celebrities and media campaigns won’t cut it. “Asking” requires real, peer to peer field work - the same type of work that campaigns use to target older voters. In 1992, Rock the Vote ran that field component and youth turned out for Bill Clinton. In 1996 and 2000, there was no similar field effort and youth turnout declined.

Beginning in 2004, outside organizations emerged who have taken on the responsibility of coordinating such field campaigns and we’ve seen the results. The youth vote has turned out in greater numbers in the last three election cycles and is growing greater with every year. In 2004 (pdf), 4.3 million more young voters (18 - 29) went to the polls than in 2000. Turnout rose from 40 percent to 49 percent. In swing states that were targeted by youth organizers, turnout was 17 percent higher than in non-targeted states. Young voters were also the only age demographic to choose John Kerry over George Bush. In 2006 (pdf), youth turnout rose during a midterm election for the first time in over 20 years. According to the latest research by Rock the Vote, youth turnout participation in the primaries has doubled since 2004.

Fact: Youth will turnout if you engage them and dedicate real campaign resources.

The most interesting part of this is Connery’s focus on “real, peer to peer” field work. It’s weird that so many people think celebrity endorsements and MTV coverage are all that it takes to snag young voters. For every other demographic group that doesn’t always vote in high numbers, it’s accepted that, to get them to the polls, campaigns needs to put voters in contact with people they trust and know.

For example, President Bush and Karl Rove’s ability to get record turnout among evangelicals was largely attributed to their targeting of individual churches–which meant that evangelical voters would be more likely to personally know someone who was an active Bush supporter. It turns out that the same tactics work for young voters, and can pay huge dividends down the road, since, as Connery points out, partisan identification is formed early and rarely falters.

So please, candidates, pander to us more!