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Feb

11

Youth vote outreach and impact in Ohio


Redhorse wrote here about how he thinks the college students in Ohio could make a big difference.

And here in today’s Plain Dealer, my favorite PD writer, Margaret Bernstein, writes about that very topic.

It [instances of young voters being motivated] all suggests that a youthful revolution is taking place in American politics – but such trends have been forecast inaccurately in the past. Many thought Howard Dean’s innovative use of the Internet in 2004 would lead to a surge in youth activism that never materialized at the polls.

But experts say that political passions have steadily risen among young voters since then, and with hot-button issues such as Iraq on the table, emotion and idealism are now bubbling over.

Last week’s Super Tuesday elections brought out stunning numbers of young voters: When turnout figures for the 2000 and 2008 primaries are compared, the number of 18- to 29-year-olds voting doubled in Massachusetts, tripled in Georgia, Oklahoma and Missouri, and quadrupled in Tennessee.

And in Ohio, largely ignored by the national campaigns until recently because of its late primary date, young activists have kept up a noisy racket in an otherwise quiet state.

Please read the entire story. Margaret covers examples of how young voters are getting active, outreach to similarly aged voters who aren’t in college and the grafting of digital media into the campaign efforts.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 10:15 am February 11th, 2008 in Barack Obama, Campaigning, Education, Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, John McCain, Media, Mike Huckabee, Ohio, Politics, Predictions, Primary, WH2008 

Comments

2 Responses to “Youth vote outreach and impact in Ohio”

  1. 1 redhorse on February 11th, 2008 9:56 pm

    Nice catch Jill. While it may be that we only have 18% of our under 30s in college, given the sheer population, that’s a great number of folks.

    Can you imagine turnout for this primary? It’s going to be insanely high.

  2. 2 Jill Miller Zimon on February 11th, 2008 9:58 pm

    Totally agree. I’m so glad I’m not Jane Platten, who, personally, I really like – I think she is trying her goshdarned hardest. Nothing could convince me to do her job.

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