:: blame the extended gestation.... ::

:: Wednesday, September 15, 2004 ::

The New York Times > Washington > Campaign 2004 > Vote Drives Gain Avid Attention of Youth in '04:

"After dismal turnout by young voters in 2000, surveys this year show that interest in the election among the young is near the highest level it has reached at any time since 18- to 20-year-olds were given the vote in 1972. And state election officials say registration of new young voters is coming in at levels they have not seen in years.

Polls in the spring and summer from the Harvard Institute of Politics, the Pew Research Center and MTV all found that young people say they plan to vote at a rate that will far eclipse the low-water mark of four years ago. The pool of potential young voters is substantial - about 40.6 million Americans ages 18 to 29, or one in five eligible voters, according to the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, or Circle, a nonprofit research group that has concentrated on the youth vote.

'This is a bigger group than 50- to 65-year-olds,' said Carrie Donovan, the youth director at Circle, which is based at the University of Maryland School of Public Policy and financed by the Pew Charitable Trusts and Carnegie Corporation of New York. 'It seems like so much of it is influenced by the kind of buzz that's out there, and this year, there's a real buzz.'"

I've never understood the young people = apathy perspective. But then again my friends and I have always been political.

:: Jim Nichols 9/15/2004 09:34:00 AM [+] ::
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