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"Political Participation" includes
voting, protesting, lobbying, trying to persuade others
to vote, and many other activities.
Youth Voter Turnout Sharply Up for 2006 Midterm Elections
CIRCLE issues a fact sheet showing:
- Turnout among 18-29 year-olds increased for the second major election in a row.
- Young adults voted for the Democratic candidate over the Republican candidate in races for the House of Representatives (58% vs. 38%), the Senate (60% vs. 33%) and governor (55% vs. 34%).
Click here to download the fact sheet.
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Youth Voting in Past Midterm Elections: State-by-State Analysis
CIRCLE has released historical data on the midterm cycles nationwide – and by state – since 1974. In 2002, the three states with the highest level of youth voter turnout were Minnesota (45 percent), South Dakota (36 percent), and Alaska (34 percent). In contrast, the three states with the lowest voter turnout rates among young people in 2002 were Delaware (15 percent), West Virginia (15 percent) and Arizona (14 percent). State and national fact sheets can be found at here.
Note: Historical youth voting estimates for midterm elections are based on the Census Current Population Survey (CPS). Similar estimates for 2006 will not be available until 2007 when Census releases the 2006 CPS. However, using exit polls and vote tallies CIRCLE has provided a preliminary estimate of youth participation in the 2006 midterm elections at the NATIONAL level. Similar estimates are available for 1994 and 2002. Please click here for more information.
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What Works: Getting Young People to the Polls
A new report from CIRCLE and Young Voter Strategies analyzes specific get-out-the-vote tactics to uncover what works, what doesn't and what the tactics cost per vote.
Among the report's key findings:
- 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.
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Facts on Youth Voting in the 2004 Election
For quick facts on youth voting see the following fact
sheets and press releases:
Need more quick facts on youth voting? Click
here to view full list of Fact Sheets.
For a technical explanation of how CIRCLE
calculates voter turnout please see CIRCLE
Working Paper 35: The Youth Vote 2004: With a Historical
Look at Youth Voting Patterns, 1972-2004.
CIRCLE's Youth
Voting State Map allows you to compare youth voting
statistics from 1998, 2000, 2002, and 2004 for all 50
states and also includes state-by-state information on
youth demographics, and registration and voting laws.
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Improving Web Outreach to Young Voters
A recent CIRCLE study by W. Lance Bennett and Mike Xenos
entitled "Young Voters and the Web of Politics 2004:
The Youth Political Web Sphere Comes of Age" updates
information provided in a similar study done in 2002.
Research by Lance Bennett and Michael Xenos introduces
a "network-analysis of nonpartisan youth electoral
engagement web sites." Their new working paper examines
the role and growth of websites during the 2004 Presidential
election. The authors find that information on voter registration,
events and on-site election information have all increased
since 2002. The whole array of youth-oriented election
websites has also become better integrated.
For the new Bennett and Xenos Working Paper and key findings
and best practices (with screenshots) from their previous
work on youth voting websites, visit
this page.
Take an online tour of
the Key Findings & Best Practices from 2002
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Census Data Shows Youth Voter Turnout
Surged More Than Any Other Age Group in 2004!
The increase in turnout by the youngest
voters, age 18-24, was higher than any other age group,
making it a significant and disproportionate factor in
the overall jump in the number of Americans going to the
polls last fall, according to CIRCLE analysis of Census
Bureau data. The analysis shows that the voter turnout
rate among voters under age 25 jumped 11 points, from
36 to 47 percent, from 2000 to 2004. The overall voter
turnout rate grew by about four points, from 60 to 64
percent. Click
here to read the press release.
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The Gap Between Service and Politics:
A Candid Discussion Between Young People and Politicians
Research shows that young people are leading
the way in volunteering, but falling behind in political
participation. In January 2004, college students in Wisconsin
were invited to join U.S. Representatives Tammy Baldwin
and Mark Green at The Johnson Foundation's Wingspread
Conference Center to discuss the disconnect between service
and politics. Findings from the meeting are contained
in CIRCLE
Working Paper 27: From the Horse's Mouth: A Dialogue Between
Politicians and College Students.
The Working Paper suggests that one way
to increase youth involvement in politics may be to develop
more models that allow students the opportunity to engage
in realistic political exercises through their schools
or other places of civic education. Students noted that
working in a soup kitchen prepared them for service work,
but it did not prepare them to advocate for policies to
decrease homelessness. To work on these policies, students
need opportunities engage in the realities of politics,
including partisanship, without advancing one side or
the other. Several other recommendations and insights
can be found in the paper.
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The Summer Canvass: A New Form of Civic
Engagement
Every summer, thousands of young people
in the United States work for non-profit organizations
in what is called the "summer canvass." Through
the canvass, young people spend their summer vacations
recruiting and renewing memberships for social movement
organizations. CIRCLE
Working Paper 26: Civic Engagement and the Canvass
explores what motivates young people to become summer
canvassers. The research shows that canvassers are significantly
more civically engaged than the general population of
young people in the United States even up to a year after
their canvassing experience. The report also offers recommendations
for improving the effectiveness of the canvass program.
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Youth Turnout Up Sharply in 2004!
A new CIRCLE Fact Sheet shows that the turnout
rate of 18-24 year old voters rose by 5.8 percentage points,
as 1.8 million more people in this age group voted than
in 2000. Last week, 10.5 million under-25 voters went
to the polls, compared to 8.7 million four years ago,
raising the turnout rate to 42.3% from 36.5%. Included
in the Fact Sheet is information about first-time voters,
issues that are important to young voters, and which candidate
the majority preferred.
Also read CIRCLE's Nov. 3 Release
on Youth Voting in 2004 (4.6 million more 18-29s voted
in 2004, turnout up by 9.3 points)
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Increasing Youth Voting Through Interactive
Technology
One way to increase youth political participation
and interest in politics may be through interactive technology.
An exploratory study tested whether presenting campaign
information in an interactive, entertaining manner increases
youth political interest, efficacy, and participation.
To test this hypothesis the researchers
conducted a randomized experiment where students were
divided into three groups- two treatment groups and a
control group. The first treatment group received an "adult"
version of a CD containing extensive information about
the 2002 California gubernatorial election in an e-book
format. The second treatment group received a "youth"
version of the CD with the same information contained
in the adult version but supplemented with a variety of
interactive games, contests and quizzes.
They found that young people who used the
interactive, youth version of the CD voted at a higher
rate, showed more interest in the campaign, and expressed
greater faith in the act of voting than young people who
did not receive the CD. The research was conducted by
Stanto Iyengar and Simon Jackman of Stanford University.
The complete findings can be found in CIRCLE Working Paper
24 Technology and Politics: Incentives for Youth Participation.
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2004 Election: Polling Data on Young
Voters
CIRCLE
Fact Sheet: The 2004 Presidential Election and Young Voters
presents evidence from polls on the views, political
partisanship, and top issues of young people in the 2004
presidential race. Young people's interest in this year's
presidential election is at its highest since 1992. According
to a September MTV/CIRCLE poll conducted by CBS News,
81 percent of young registered voters are paying close
attention to the campaign, compared to 85 percent in 1992,
the last time youth voter turnout broke its decline. Among
young people, support for specific candidates has varied,
and at this point in the race, it is unclear who will
win the youth vote. Furthermore, young people cannot easily
be classified as Republican, Democrat or Independent;
no single political party dominates the youth vote.
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What is Working in 2004 to Attract Young
Voters
A new report, The
Fountain of Youth: Political Parties and the Mobilization
of Young Americans, details the most successful
efforts by political parties to mobilize the youth vote
at the national, state, and county levels. The report
is the second of two reports by CIRCLE grantees, Dr. Daniel
M. Shea, Director of the College Center for Political
Participation at Allegheny
College and John C. Green of the Ray C. Bliss Institute
of Applied Politics at the University of Akron. Using
survey data as a starting place, during the summer of
2004 the authors conducted interviews with a few dozen
political party leaders who seemed to be doing innovative
work to attract young voters.
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Cost Effective Ways to Mobilize Young
Voters on Election Day
A study by Donald
P. Green of Yale University found that personally
contacting young people on Election Day can significantly
increase youth voter turnout, but only if they've already
expressed interest in voting. The study is an evaluation
of an extensive experiment conducted surrounding last
fall's elections in New Jersey. It was designed to see
what gains could be made when young voters contacted leading
up to the election were urged to vote on Election Day.
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Youth Voting in the 2004 Battleground
States
A CIRCLE
Fact Sheet shows the impact the youth vote could have
nationally and in the 20 key battleground states. With
nearly 41 million eligible 18-29 year old voters - one-fifth
of the electorate - and divided political preferences,
this voting bloc could make a difference in the battleground
states. The number of eligible young voters ranges from
a high of more than two million in Florida to 172,000
in New Hampshire. Moreover, the greatest growth in the
number of new young voters since 1992 has been in Arizona,
North Carolina, Florida, Louisiana, and New Mexico, each
of which have gained more than 100,000 young voters.
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Getting Out the Asian American Vote in
Los Angeles County
A study by Janelle Wong examines the effectiveness of
voter outreach efforts in high-density Chinese, Korean,
Filipino, Indian, and Japanese American communities Los
Angeles County. The research shows that the effects of
phone and mail canvassing vary greatly by ethnicity and
geographic area. This type of canvassing was most effective
in mobilizing Chinese Americans living in West San Gabriel
Valley, an active predominantly Chinese American community.
In addition, the study suggests when mobilizing Asian
American voters by phone and mail, it is important to
address language diversity. Of those successfully contacted
through this study the preference for speaking a language
other than English ranged from 5% among Indian Americans
to over 60% of Korean Americans.
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State Voter Registration and Election
Day Laws
CIRCLE's new Fact Sheet presents information on the
various types of state voting laws as well as their estimated
impact on youth voter turnout. Laws that make it easier
to register and vote seem to have a significant impact
on youth voter turnout. For example, on average youth
voter turnout was 14 percentage points higher in Presidential
years in states with Election-Day registration.
For more information, the Fact Sheet is
based in part on the following two reports:
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Mobilizing the Youth Vote: What Local Political Party
Leaders Are and Aren't Doing
Research shows that local political parties
are doing very little to attract young voters. Roughly
nine-in-ten (88 percent) party leaders say youth political
engagement is a serious problem. A similar portion (93
percent) feel local parties can make a big difference
in getting young people involved in politics. However,
among the 41 percent of party leaders that claim to
have developed specific get-out-the-vote programs for
young voters, a vast majority of programs they cited
as examples might be dubbed "modest" and "traditional."
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Getting Out the
Youth Vote
"Get
Out the Vote! How to Increase Voter Turnout",
a new book by Donald P. Green and Alan S. Gerber, is a
practical guide for anyone trying to mobilize voters or
organize at the grass roots. The book uses results from
CIRCLE-funded field experiments to show that old-fashioned,
door-to-door campaigning can be a surprisingly effective
and affordable get-out-the-vote tactic. Green and Gerber
have found that phone canvassing increases turnout by
an average of five percent points, and face-to-face canvassing
increases turnout by 8.5 points. Canvassing young people
also slightly increases turnout among adults living with
them. Read the transcript from the CIRCLE/Brookings
briefing featuring Donald Green and a panel of respondents.
In addition, the Youth
Vote Coalition has recently released a how-to guide
on mobilizing young voters entitled "Youth
Vote Coalition's Best Practices Handbook in Nonpartisan
Voter Mobilization". The handbook is a compilation
of campaign experiences from twelve Youth Vote Coalition
field sites nationwide. The handbook is based on research
conducted by Youth Vote Coalition and Yale University.
Funding for the project was provided by CIRCLE.
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Different Voting Methods Affect
Turnout
It seems states implementing new more
convenient voting laws witnessed increases in youth voter
turnout. Most notably, young people are considerably more
likely to vote if they are able to register to vote on
Election Day.
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Young People
Express their Views in Many Ways
Please see "How
Young People Express Their Political Views,"
by Michael Olander, which draws from the Civic
and Political Health of the Nation report to provide
detailed statistics about how young people contact elected
officials, boycott products, raise money for causes, and
otherwise express their views.
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Young
People Are Voting Less
Measuring young people's voting raises
difficult issues, and there is not a single clearly correct
turnout figure for youth in any given year. However, the
electoral participation of Americans under the age of
25 has declined since 1972, when 18-to-21-year-olds were
first permitted to vote. The size of the decline in presidential-election
years is between 13 and 15 percentage points (depending
on the method of calculation). This is a significant drop,
greater than the decline among older Americans.
For much more information (including an
explanation of methodological issues, 15 graphs, and data
tables), please
click here to read our fact sheet. Or click below
for an example of one graph from the fact sheet:
Youth Voter Turnout is Down
in Presidential Years
Some Reasons for
Voting and Non-Voting
CIRCLE's analysis of our 2002
National Youth Survey indicates that "efficacy",
the sense that one can make a difference, has a powerful
correlation with voting:
Factors Related to Voter Registration
Young Adult Voting Perceptions
Parental Socialization is Strong
Predictor
The following CIRCLE Fact Sheets provide
information on youth voting:
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