Our vote

The national numbers of Americans ages 18-24 voting in presidential elections hasn't topped 50 percent since 1972, but many predict that this record may be topped tomorrow.

"A lot of people feel their vote doesn't count," said Donald Pogue, a Cal State Long Beach history major who voted early in Orange County. "But what right do you have to complain [about the outcome] if you didn't vote?"

Youth voting reached a record low in the 1996 presidential election, according to the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE). That percentage had jumped 12 points by the end of the 2004 election, and the upward trend is expected to continue with this election.

 The reasons for the historically low proportion of youth voters are anyone's guess, according a CSULB political science professor Lewis Ringel in an e-mail.

"It could be that a great number of younger voters do not have financial assets and do not get that politics affects them," Ringel said. "It could be they feel that their vote does not count — a fairly rational feeling as it often turns out … It could be that they often feel content or not ready to vote. It could be that their family did not stress voting."

Mary Caputi, a CSULB political science professor, sees voter apathy as a more pervasive phenomenon.

"I think it's more an American trend than a youth trend," Caputi said of voter turnout rates.

Expectation of a rise in youth voter turnout is being attributed to the existence of pressing national issues and the utilization of online media by both campaigns.

"Because 18 to 25-year-olds get the reputation of not voting, campaigns do not necessarily design campaigns with them in mind," Ringel said.

But attempts from both camps to reach younger citizens through the Internet show that campaigns may be rethinking this strategy.

"The role of technology has been very important in bringing youth into the political process,"said Victor M. Rodriguez, Chicano-Latino studies professor and department chair, in an e-mail."Given the level of youth involvement in the Obama and McCain campaign[s], it seems very likely that the youth vote will reach new heights this Nov. 4."

Others attribute students taking notice of national issues as the main force behind mobilization.

"Younger voters — and all voters — are energized this time around because the stakes are so high," said Shira Tarrant, a women's studies professor, in an e-mail. "We're at war, the economy is tanking, Wall Street greed is becoming obvious, people in power have taken us for a ride — and younger voters are sitting up and taking notice. Younger voters are wondering what their college degrees will be worth and why their friends are dying in Iraq. They have questions and want a change."

Caputi said that, judging by the interest and excitement of students in her classes, she foresees a large youth voter turnout this year that will have a "substantial effect on the election."

George Miranda of the L.A. County Registrar's office said he expects young voter turnout to be much higher than it was in 2004 when, according to CIRCLE, 46 percent of California citizens ages 18 to 29 voted in the presidential election. 

 "What we're seeing this year is a mobilization of young people in even greater numbers than in 1992, the year then-Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton used the youth vote to help him defeat incumbent President George H.W. Bush," Associate Professor of journalism Chris Burnett said in an e-mail.