Massachusetts Senate Election: Youth Turnout Was Just 15%, Compared to 57% for Older Citizens; Young Voters Favored Coakley
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Tisch College, Medford/Somerville, Mass – In the special election for Massachusetts Senator, young voters (age 18-29) preferred Democrat Martha Coakley over Republican Scott Brown by 58%-40% (with 2% for other candidates), according to a survey of 1,000 voters conducted on January 19, by Rasmussen Reports.
About 15% of Massachusetts citizens between the ages of 18-29 turned out to vote.* For citizens age 30 and older, turnout was about 57%.
For comparison: 25% of young citizens (age 18-29) voted in the 2008 Massachusetts presidential primaries, and 47.8% of young Massachusetts citizens voted in the 2008 presidential elections, according to CIRCLE’s analysis. Seventy-eight percent of under-30 voters in Massachusetts chose Barack Obama in the 2008 general election; 20% chose John McCain.
While national youth turnout was very strong in 2008 (when 52% of young American citizens voted), youth turnout in the 2009 Virginia and New Jersey Gubernatorial races was poor (17% and 19%, respectively), and even lower in Massachusetts this Tuesday. “Three state elections do not necessarily make a national trend, but there is clearly an issue right now with youth turnout and enthusiasm,” said CIRCLE director Peter Levine. “It will be interesting to see the turnout of young voters in November’s mid-term elections.”
According to the Rasmussen survey, most young people who did vote were enthusiastic about Coakley: 89% of her young supporters said they voted for her, not against Scott Brown; and 43% were “very favorable” toward her. Their most important issue was the economy, whereas for voters overall, the number one issue was health care.
Of those Massachusetts voters who said that health care was the most important issue in the Senate campaign (56%), 86% opposed the Democrats’ plan. That was probably one contributor to Scott Brown’s victory. But young voters favored the health care plan, 55%-40%.
Young voters were less likely to be “strong” supporters of President Obama than Massachusetts voters overall (30% of youth versus 35% of all voters), but they were more likely to support him at least “somewhat.” (Sixty-seven percent support the president somewhat or strongly).
* To estimate the turnout of young people who voted in the 2010 Massachusetts Senate Special Election, CIRCLE used the following data sources: (1) the number of ballots cast in the Sentate Special Election according to the New York Times (2) the youth share of those who voted, as reported by Rasmussen’s survey of people who said that they voted, and (3) the estimated number of 18-29 year old citizens taken from the 2009 Census Current Population Survey, December File.
January 20th, 2010 at 3:52 pm
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This post was mentioned on Twitter by pslutsky: Youth abandon Democratic Party in MA – turnout was 15%(!!!) among voters age 18-29. OUCH. No youths, no chance! – http://bit.ly/6VhLMq...
January 20th, 2010 at 7:22 pm
the problem with young voters is and always will be their actual knowledge of the issues (or lack there of). With the young voter, it is more so the fact the liberal agenda fits right in with the inexperience destructive nature of youth. I mean never mind the fact Coakly was a horrible candidate that was just picked purely for another lock step vote for liberal agendas. at 21, college educated and doing pretty well in life I will say that the BS liberals spew will kill this nation and the sooner the youth understands people trying to push young voters to the left are doing so in order to add another pawn to the destructive liberal/progressive agenda.
January 21st, 2010 at 11:22 am
[...] I am sure one topic of conversation in the aftermath of Massachusetts will be what happened with the 18-29 vote? [...]
January 21st, 2010 at 1:01 pm
[...] Tuesday, young people flattened that idea, according to a survey by Rasmussen Reports for the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at Tufts University. It’s not that they gave Republican Scott Brown the majority of their [...]
January 21st, 2010 at 3:56 pm
[...] young people don’t vote in special elections – and the special election for Kennedy’s seat was no exception – so what you run with on January 19, 2010, a special election, looks more like the [...]
January 21st, 2010 at 5:04 pm
[...] Tuesday, young people flattened that idea, according to a survey by Rasmussen Reports for the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at Tufts University. It’s not that they gave Republican Scott Brown the majority of their [...]
January 22nd, 2010 at 5:19 am
[...] Haiti: Absent in Life, Death and On the Evening News – Majority Post 2 Likes CIRCLE – A nonpartisan research center studying youth civic engagement and civic education. »… 2 Likes 37th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade | Facebook Facebook is a social utility [...]
January 22nd, 2010 at 4:43 pm
[...] CIRCLE – A independent research edifice studying youngness subject … [...]
January 22nd, 2010 at 10:42 pm
[...] There are plenty of reasons for Scott Brown’s victory in the Massachusetts Special Election, including Martha Coakley simply being a shitty, shitty candidate. But the most disheartening of the reasons was that only “15% of Massachusetts citizens between the ages of 18-29 turned out to vote.” [...]
January 29th, 2010 at 2:17 am
The voice of the Youth plays an important role in our society. However, sometimes we can plainly rely on their voices because they are overwhelmed of their feelings toward a particular situation.
January 30th, 2010 at 12:57 pm
Everyone in politics has been rejecting youth voters for 10 years. Well now they’ve grown up and Hillary has done the same political scheming that everyone has been banking on. Only this time, the youth are matching and sometimes outstripping the granny vote. She got outflanked and is pulling every trick in the book to win. Crying, seating delegates from uncontested states, playing the victim card, crying again, and LOANING herself 5 million, claiming she’s the underdog with 100% name recognition and 35 years of saving babies lives and walking old ladies across the street and saving women from evil men. I don’t buy this lying garbage.
January 30th, 2010 at 12:58 pm
I’m so sick of baby-boomers patronizing young people. The original “me” generation is constantly projecting all of their own flaws onto us. We are called lazy and materialistic, with no attention span. They are the spoiled kids from the first affluent American generation and they are willing to screw over anyone to get what they want. Listen closely to Hillary talk, she doesn’t talk TO young people, she talks ABOUT young people. Like we are some kind of assets in their game/system. These are the people who responded to the first unjust war by getting high and fing all the time. Then they turn around and call us the lazy generation because we aren’t focused on selling out and making as much money as possible like the 80′s, and because we want some integrity in the system instead of exploiting it all for our personal gain. Now they want to go for broke on the social security system. Well guess what, we aren’t as lazy as you thought or hoped and now we realize that this crap has to stop. The difference is that young people now can organize a grass-roots movement capable of beating big-money machine politics and that’s what we intend to do.
January 30th, 2010 at 12:59 pm
To all the YOUTH Out there read this…..if you are so caught up on his church speaks then dig into his religious beliefs….this is FACTUAL its amazing he has not be challenged on this issue. No one should vote for Obama because he belongs to a racist church with politic focus on Africa. Here is is church web site: http://www.tucc.org/about.htm This is one of thier committments whihc is distateful to me as a non-black American: “A congregation with a non-negotiable COMMITMENT TO AFRICA. ” We as AMERICANS desire a President who has a non-negotiable commitment to AMERICA, if your religious beliefs conflict with this then you should step a aside. Obama continues to talk about UNITY yet he has beliefs that will casue problems in this country.
February 3rd, 2010 at 3:25 pm
Politics is the main key role of any system, if today’s politics get free from corruption then the whole country will be corrupt free.
February 5th, 2010 at 4:22 am
Politics is the main key role of any system
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February 7th, 2010 at 2:35 pm
I go to UMASS Amherst. No surprise here. Only a few of my friends voted. Young people are pretty apathetic when it comes to do this stuff.
February 13th, 2010 at 6:35 am
It seems that the younger generation is alot less inclined to vote these days. Perhaps they just dont fully understand politics.
February 13th, 2010 at 7:50 pm
57% of abstention on older people is a lot high in my opinion.
February 14th, 2010 at 6:26 am
[...] CIRCLE – A nonpartisan research center studying youth civic … [...]
February 15th, 2010 at 1:01 pm
This election was clearly about who didn’t show up to vote rather than who did.
February 15th, 2010 at 4:56 pm
Young voters pretend to understand what the issues are, but most young citizens vote for whomever runs the greatest campaign. I couldn’t possibly enumerate how many young citizens said they weren’t going to vote for John McCain because of his age, they complained that he was too old. Young civilians don’t pay any attention to the political beliefs of a certain politician, they just base everything on what the politician declares when they are campaigning.
February 16th, 2010 at 2:03 am
Their most important issue was the economy, whereas for voters overall, the number one issue was health care.
February 18th, 2010 at 1:47 am
The good thing about your information is that it is explicit enough for students to grasp. Thanks for your efforts in spreading academic knowledge.
February 19th, 2010 at 1:31 am
Nowadays, it’s very important for us to know how our Youth think towards our current situation. Most of the time, they have better way of thinking compared for adults. More open minded, which can help them decide what they really want to achieve.
February 25th, 2010 at 12:15 pm
But success of youth movements would also depend on the health organizational structures of their political parties -that answers questions about flexibility to changing times, whether it easily deals with external pressures or challenges, whether it has able widely acceptable leadership (internal democracy), whether it carries out periodical survey about its strength and carry out necessary checks, and above all; whether it is impermeable to allow the youth demonstrate their leadership potential
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February 28th, 2010 at 11:25 am
Perhaps youth just dont fully ”care” about politics.
March 3rd, 2010 at 3:42 am
I agreed that The voice of the Youth plays an important role in our society
March 3rd, 2010 at 11:01 pm
I do have a bit of an issue with the mass reporting of percentages and proportions without some measure of standard error. For instance, “Of those Massachusetts voters who said that health care was the most important issue in the Senate campaign (56%), 86% opposed the Democrats’ plan.” that’s a pretty small sample size, so I’d like to see what the sampling error is on that 86%. That’s my $.02
March 3rd, 2010 at 11:18 pm
Young voters must vote so that the concerns of their sector will be addressed by the candidate whom they voted for.
March 8th, 2010 at 3:50 pm
The new generation needs to be heard, even though they may not vibe well with the elders.
March 9th, 2010 at 10:08 pm
I am sure one topic of conversation in the aftermath of Massachusetts will be what happened with the 18-29 vote?
March 9th, 2010 at 10:29 pm
Perhaps they just dont fully understand politics.
March 15th, 2010 at 2:39 pm
Very good information, thank you very much by the article and the quality of your Web site. A greeting from Chile.
March 17th, 2010 at 11:26 am
You generation must participate in elections
April 5th, 2010 at 2:02 pm
A lot of apathy these days
April 10th, 2010 at 3:14 pm
Most young people really don’t care about politics. The turnout for the last presidential election was good but that was a historic event. You can’t expect the same turnout for a senatorial election.
April 13th, 2010 at 8:56 am
I think its a good sign and i hope in future we will see more improvements.
April 16th, 2010 at 8:31 am
very good web page
April 17th, 2010 at 11:17 am
this website inspires the youth and gives them a new energy.. good thing mate
April 20th, 2010 at 8:12 am
Everyone in politics has been rejecting youth voters for 10 years. Well now they’ve grown up and Hillary has done the same political scheming that everyone has been banking on. Only this time, the youth are matching and sometimes outstripping the granny vote. She got outflanked and is pulling every trick in the book to win. Crying, seating delegates from uncontested states, playing the victim card, crying again, and LOANING herself 5 million, claiming she’s the underdog with 100% name recognition and 35 years of saving babies lives and walking old ladies across the street and saving women from evil men. I don’t buy this lying garbage.
April 22nd, 2010 at 1:30 pm
The survey is not a good sign,youth should be participated actively in all election procedures.
April 26th, 2010 at 10:30 am
That’s a good thing and it should be continued.
May 2nd, 2010 at 4:54 am
I hope in future we will see more improvements..
May 3rd, 2010 at 4:12 pm
Young voters are becoming much more likely to vote on elections close to home. this is a great trend.
May 5th, 2010 at 3:02 am
I hope that there would be a brighter future ahead of all of us!
May 5th, 2010 at 4:31 am
I always believe tomorrow will be get better
May 7th, 2010 at 8:53 am
Thanks! That is great for the advances we are expecting.
May 16th, 2010 at 2:57 am
I also believe tomorrow will be get better
May 16th, 2010 at 3:49 am
Thank you for your kind
May 21st, 2010 at 12:46 pm
It’s good to see that the younger generation is getting more involved. It seems as though a lot of the young adults that took action during the Obama election are continuing their involvement in politics even a year and a half later. This is great news for the future of America. Hopefully the trend will keep up. The collaboration of American citizens both young and old is what brings about true change, which is the vision of our President. In this particular case, if young voters got involved and won the majority vote for Coakley, then so be it – the power of their voice has been recognized. Hopefully the voice of America will be heard when the World Cup officials choose a country to host the games in 2018 and 2022. Doug Band will hopefully unite the voices of all United States citizens when representing the US on the bid committee.
May 22nd, 2010 at 8:51 am
I agreed that The voice of the Youth plays an important role in our society!!
May 25th, 2010 at 9:11 pm
Gandhiji said youth is the wealth of the nation
May 29th, 2010 at 11:05 am
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June 3rd, 2010 at 6:44 pm
Excellent article, explained very clearly. Congratulations on the quality of your website. Greetings from Chile.
June 6th, 2010 at 2:33 am
What a great read! I really enjoy reading your posts here! thanks
June 10th, 2010 at 10:16 am
That’s an excellent point,Ethan Brown
Thenx
June 13th, 2010 at 10:00 pm
We have to get more people out to vote. It is important.
June 14th, 2010 at 6:53 am
The difference is that young people now can organize a grass-roots movement capable of beating big-money machine politics and that’s what we intend to do.
June 20th, 2010 at 5:08 am
hopefully in the future the youth will be more involved in politics as its their future thats being decided on.
June 20th, 2010 at 1:24 pm
Thanks! That is great for the advances we are expecting.
June 24th, 2010 at 2:01 pm
It’s an interesting approach. I commonly see unexceptional views on the subject but yours it’s written in a pretty unusual fashion. Surely, I will revisit your website for additional info.
June 26th, 2010 at 10:12 am
Great post, Thanks for this article on social behavior.
keep up posting.
September 13th, 2010 at 6:28 am
There are plenty of reasons for Scott Brown’s victory in the Massachusetts Special Election, including Martha Coakley simply being a shitty, shitty candidate. But the most dish
October 7th, 2010 at 5:15 pm
[...] 2008 election saw record youth participation with 52 percent of young Americans voting. This figure represented the “third-highest showing of young voters — [...]
October 7th, 2010 at 5:16 pm
[...] 2008 election saw record youth participation with 52 percent of young Americans voting. This figure represented the “third-highest showing of young voters — [...]
October 27th, 2010 at 1:55 pm
The youth always vote more liberal, in large part because of our universities are so liberal.
November 2nd, 2010 at 1:22 am
I must confess that over the last two weeks of that particularly unhinged election spiral, despite the brief thought refreshment I experienced on the Restoring Sanity Rally about Saturday, I have once yet again begun to suss out suitable caves inside Northwest Territories of Canada to i can retire and get rid the intellectual and moral potato sack sprint to the bottom that is your national political conversation.
November 2nd, 2010 at 9:56 pm
Rather positive I discovered some thing relating to this on MSNBC
April 10th, 2011 at 6:23 am
I dont however believe that young voters casted majority of their votes in favor of Coakley.