Youth Voting

On This Page:

**Updated Data** A voter turnout time series for 1972-2010 (Excel spreadsheet)

2008 Presidential Elections:

• Youth Voter Turnout in 2008 Elections
• Voting Laws & Youth Turnout

2010 Young Voter Turnout

• Opinion of the President
• Important National Issues
• Support for the Tea Party
• Racial and Ethnic Diversity
• College Experience
• Religious Affiliation
• Voting by Political Party

Getting Out the Youth Vote: What Works , Local Political Parties & Youth, & Other Resources

Youth Voter Turnout in 2008 Elections

• Youth (18-29) voter turnout rose to 51 percent in 2008, an increase of two percentage points from the 2004 Presidential election.

• In the 2008 election, 36% of youth without college experience turned out to vote, compared to the 62% with college experience.

Source: Youth Vote in 2008

Voting Laws & Youth Turnout

In 2008, on average, 59% of young Americans whose home state offered Election Day Registration voted; nine percentage points higher than those who did not live in EDR states.

Sources: “Easier Voting Methods Boost Youth Turnout“; How Postregistration Laws Affect the Turnout of Registrants; State Voting Laws and State Election Law Reform and Youth Voter Turnout .

2010 Midterm Elections

2010 Young Voter Turnout

• An estimated 24% of all eligible young people ages 18-29 voted in the 2010 midterms.

• Younger voters chose Democratic House candidates over Republican House candidates by a margin of 57%-40%. This is by comparison to the national results for all ages that chose Republican House Candidates over Democrat House candidates with a 52%-45% margin.

Opinion of the President

• By a 60%-40% margin, younger voters approved of Barack Obama’s handling of his job as president.

Important National Issues

• Given a choice among four issues that could be the most important facing the United States, younger voters chose the economy (59%), followed by health care (24%), the war in Afghanistan (8%) and illegal immigration (6%). These choices were not much different from those of all voters or any other age group.

Support for the Tea Party

• Twenty-seven percent of young voters supported the Tea Party, with 10% “strongly” supporting the movement. In contrast, 40% of all voters and nearly half (47%) of 60+ voters supported the Tea Party. Twenty-seven percent of 60+ voters supported it “strongly.”

Racial and Ethnic Diversity

• Younger voters were more racially and ethnically diverse than the electorate as a whole. Among younger voters, 66% were white, 14% Black, 15% Hispanic, 3% Asian, and 2% “all others”. In contrast, among voters 30 and older, 80% were white, 10% Black, 7% Hispanic, 1% Asian, and 2% “all other.” Seven percent of younger voters said they were gay, lesbian, or bisexual, compared to 4% of all voters.

College Experience

• The young electorate was tilted toward college-educated people. In fact, preliminary estimates by CIRCLE suggest that young people who have some college experience were more than twice as likely to vote as their peers who have not been to college.

Religious Affiliation

• Young voters had a different religious profile than other voters. In the 2010 National House election, they were half as likely to be Protestant and were unusually prominent in the “Other Christian” and “None” categories.

Source: Youth Voters in 2010 Elections

Voting by Political Party

• Younger voters tended to vote Democrat in the 2010 election by comparison to the rest of the voting population.

• The data also shows that the country tended to vote more Republican with age. As the population focus gets older, the voting trends tend to shift in the Republican direction.

For more information, see CIRLCE Fact Sheet “The Youth Vote in 2010: Final Estimates Based on Census Data,” which provides detailed tables and trends, including turnout estimates by state and estimates of the number of votes cast by young people over time.

Getting Out the Youth Vote: What Works

• Personalized and interactive contact counts. The most effective way of getting a new voter is the in-person door knock by a peer; the least effective is an automated phone call. Canvassing costs $11 to $14 per new vote, followed closely by phone banks at $10 to $25 per new vote. Robocalls mobilize so few voters that they cost $275 per new vote. (These costs are figured per vote that would not be cast without the mobilizing effort.)
• Begin with the basics. Telling a new voter where to vote, when to vote and how to use the voting machines increases turnout.
• The medium is more important than the message. Partisan and nonpartisan, negative and positive messages seem to work about the same. The important factor is the degree to which the contact is personalized.
• In ethnic and immigrant communities, start young. Young voters in these communities are easier to reach, are more likely to speak English (cutting down translation costs), and are the most effective messengers within their communities.
• Initial mobilization produces repeat voters. If an individual has been motivated to get to the polls once, they are more likely to return. So, getting young people to vote early could be key to raising a new generation of voters.
• Leaving young voters off contact lists is a costly mistake. Some campaigns still bypass young voters, but research shows they respond cost-effectively when contacted.

Source: Young Voter Mobilization Tactics

Personally contacting young people on Election Day can significantly increase youth voter turnout, but only if they’ve already expressed interest in voting.

Source: The Effects of an Election Day Voter Mobilization Campaign Targeting Young Voters by Donald P. Green

Local Political Parties and Youth

About nine-in-ten local party leaders say youth political engagement is a serious problem.

93% of local party leaders feel local parties can make a big difference in getting young people involved in politics.

Only 8% of the party chairs identified young people as the most important demographic for the “long-term success of their party,” compared to 21% who named senior citizens.

Source: Throwing a Better Party: Local Mobilizing Institutions and the Youth Vote

Resources

Fact Sheets:

2011

• The Youth Vote in 2010: Final Estimates Based on Census Data

2010

• Young Voters in the 2010 Elections
• Voter Registration Among Young People in 2008
• Will Young Voters Turn Out for the 2010 Election?
• The Minority Youth Vote in the 2008 Presidential Election
• Voter Turnout Among Young Women and Men in the 2008 Presidential Election
• The “Forgotten Half”: Education Disparities in Youth Voter Turnout
• Young people of faith more likely to be engaged than non-religious counterparts

2009

Research Report:

• Getting Out the Vote in Local Elections

Working Papers:

2010

• Youth Attitudes toward Civility in Politics

2009

• Predicting Civic Engagement in Urban High School Students
• Local and Absentee Voter Registration Drives on a College Campus
• Making Educational Progress: Links to Civic Engagement During the Transition to Adulthood

2004

• How Postregistration Laws Affect the Turnout of Registrants
• Throwing a Better Party: Local Mobilizing Institutions and the Youth Vote

2003

• Easier Voting Methods Boost Youth Turnout

For more information on youth voting:

• Young Voter Mobilization Tactics
• The 2004 Youth Vote: A Comprehensive Guide