Without the overwhelming support from American voters ages 18 to 29, Sen. Barack Obama would have likely lost his bid for presidency, according to the director of the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE).
According to national exit polls, younger voters supported Obama over Sen. John McCain by a ratio of 2-to-1 — a proportion Peter Levine, the director of CIRCLE, called “pretty extraordinary.”
Of the projected 21.6 million to 23.9 million youth voters, 66 percent voted for Obama, while 32 percent cast votes for McCain, according to CIRCLE.
Levine compared this display of enthusiasm for a presidential candidate to that shown toward Ronald Reagan in the 1984 election. He said it will be interesting to see if these young voters align themselves with the Democratic Party for life, as many did with the Republican Party after 1984.
Data from other demographics contrasted sharply with the youth vote.
Based on exit polls, votes from citizens ages 45 to 64 showed a virtual tie between the two candidates. When looking at votes of citizens ages 65 and over, Obama “loses fairly substantially,” Levine said.
As with the 2004 election, Tuesday’s results show a continued rise in the numbers of younger American citizens heading to the polls.
While only able to give a broad range for percentage of youth voter turnout, CIRCLE reports that between 49.3 percent and 54.5 percent of eligible voters ages 18 to 29 voted.
At its lowest, this estimate shows a 1 percent increase from the 2004 election, when 48 percent of eligible voters ages 18 to 29 showed up at the polls. At its highest, it shows the largest percentage of youth voter turnout since the 1972 election, when the voting age was officially lowered to 18.
Levine says CIRCLE will have more specific numbers once the several-million-more absentee and provisional ballots are counted.
Turnout on campus exceeded poll workers’ expectations, with 1,250 total ballots collected, according to Andrew Kress, Associated Students, Inc. secretary for system-wide affairs. About 60 percent of these ballots were provisional.
“I felt it was very accessible for students to vote,” said Hector Torres, a sophomore microbiology major of the on-campus polling place. “I found it very convenient.”
“I voted on campus as a provisional voter,” said Curtis Ida, a freshman graphic design major. “It was about a 20-minute wait.”
At one point, the on-campus polling place ran out of regular ballots and resorted to using emergency/demonstration ballots for about an hour until extra regular ballots were delivered, Kress said.
“These ballots looked different than the regular ones but they functioned the same way and were counted in the same manner,” Kress said in an e-mail.
The L.A. County Registrar’s office said a little over 82 percent of voters registered in L.A. County submitted ballots this election. This number was reported Wednesday, with 30 percent of precincts reporting.
The actual results showed that the young votes weren’t even needed for Obama to win. According to an MSNBC article, if the numbers were re-run as if there were no voters under 30, the only states that would switch to Republican presidential candidate John McCain are Indiana and North Carolina. Without younger voters, Obama would still have won the 270 electoral votes he needs to become the next president.
Race, however, WAS crucial. Obama received 24% of his votes from black voters, many of them first-time voters. Without the black voters, Obama would have lost the election.
Obama voted into the top position in this country and there are people around who feel we still need Affirmative Action. Go figure.
I worked the polls in my precinct down in West Long Beach, and I just had some feeling (a sixth sense if you will) that once the polls closed, I knew Obama had won the election. Actually, with Obama’s grandmother passing away last Sunday, this election was over before it started. When I saw the news, I thought, “this going to be a mere formality. McCain will get Texas, the South save the big-elector states, the Bible Belt, Alaska, Arizona, Utah and Big Sky Country, but that’s just about it.
It was a victory for race relations even though I’m a staunch McCain supporter but it was a victory for conservatism in California with 52% patriotic Americans voting in favor of Prop 8. Thank God for the Mormons in Utah that provided 40% of the funding
The real show was in watching real people realizing how important they are in effecting real change. The entire world is expressing some form of Si, se puede, Yes we can!!!! Ours is the generation that can make or break this joint, and I hope we make it. This is the age where poets and scientists merge to work it out. MLK might not be here in body, but his spirit is alive and embodied in the effort to help all realize his “Dream.” This should be the turning point in humanity’s endeavor to make every life important and we truly need to make it around that corner.
Technically, they weren’t holograms, just digital editing. Impressive nonetheless!
I have to admit, I was flipping out about the holograms.
This is an historic event and such an amazing day. I am so glad I lived to see this day. It’s just amazing.
And did anyone see the CNN coverage? We have real holograms now! Like, Star Wars. Haha. Talk about CHANGE.