Young people have their own ideas and opinions concerning the upcoming 2008 election. The difficult part is getting them to the polls, so perhaps one day those ideas, dreams and opinions can be implemented into American society.
“You can’t just convince college students and 18-year-olds that it’s cool to vote because ‘we can make a change’. You have to convince them that it’s their duty as an American citizen. It’s not just a cool thing to do,” said Graham Rainer, a political science major at the University of North Texas.
Flashes of the 2004 “Rock the Vote” campaign comes into hindsight as political analysts predict this year’s poll demographics.
The 2004 national campaign carried a lot of hype, but didn’t quite make the mark in the poll numbers as anticipated. Rainer said the college demographic is one of the hardest votes to get out and it’s one of the most inconsistent.
“Another reason college students don’t vote is because they look at their vote as simply one vote and that it doesn’t matter, but that’s not true,” he said.
Looking at the structure of the voting process, it can get kind of complicated. The electoral system is set-up to where each state gets a number of electors equal to its own number of members in the U.S. House of Representatives plus one for each of its two U.S. Senators. While state laws determine how electors are chosen, they’re generally selected by the political party committees within the states.
“In predominantly Republican states like Texas, Democrats might feel discouraged and not vote. And Republicans might not vote either because Texas is a red state. And then no one’s voting,” said Rainer.
Justina Beagnyam, a student at UNT, also thinks in terms of ‘red’ or ‘blue’ states.
“Voting in Texas I really don’t think it’s (vote) going to count that much because I pretty much know who’s going to win Texas,” she said.
Despite Beagnyam’s assumptions that John McCain will win the Texas vote, she said she’s still going to vote, just not for him.
Beagnyam’s fears she won’t be able to pay back her college loans with today’s economy, and feels that Barack Obama’s education plan will help future students.
“Strictly speaking, a single vote is not likely to be noticed across the electorate (not even in Florida in 2000),” said Dr. Philip Paolino, political science professor at the University of North Texas.
Based upon surprising voter turnout in the primaries the early voting polls are expected to be significantly higher in this election than in 2004. The question still lingers will young people, like college students shock previous statistics by making it to the polls this year.
“It would not surprise me if a greater percentage of younger people voted this year than did in 2004, but I would be surprised if turnout among younger people is as high as it is among people over 35,” said Dr. Paolino.
Dr. Paolino said the more important thing for people to do is to try to also encourage other people to vote, either individually with friends and acquaintances or through a political campaign.
Rainer helped support the Barack Obama campaign by doing a little campaigning of his own.
“I called people in swing states, like Colorado, and asked them if they could volunteer time,” he said.
Rainer found how to volunteer for the Obama campaign through moveon.org.
Katie Sanders, a student at UNT, believes every vote counts.
“If everyone said, ‘oh my vote doesn’t matter’ then no one would go out and vote,” she said.
