Monday, August 21, 2006
In the pursuit of youth, each vote counts
Politicians try to grab notice of a difficult demographic
By AMY ROLPH
P-I REPORTER
Lucas
Olson is used to rejection. When he tries to talk with people, they
avoid eye contact, suddenly have to make a call on their cell phones or
are just too immersed in the music playing on their iPods to listen.
The University of Washington student isn't trying to get a date or
make new friends. He's trying to persuade his peers to register and
pledge to vote.
| |  |
| |  | Gilbert W. Arias / P-I |
| | Laura
Restrepo, a volunteer with WashPIRG's student chapter, does her best to
attract students' attention in Red Square at the UW on Thursday so she
can talk to them about voting. |
On a recent afternoon, Olson, 19, stood in the UW's Red Square, armed only with boyish charm and a legal-pad-sized clipboard.
"When you're out here with your clipboard, there's a certain point
that they sort of run away and you can't really run after them," he
said with a shrug.
Olson, the campaign coordinator for the New Voters Project efforts
of WashPIRG's UW's chapter, said it doesn't bother him too much when
people shake their heads and keep walking.
"Once you get through telling them why (they should vote), they'll usually turn around and come back," he said.
Olson, along with other student volunteers, hopes to register 5,000
new voters this year. But historically speaking, he and others around
the country are tackling a mountainous feat -- getting young people to
show up at the polls.
Eligible voters between the ages of 18 and 24 have long been hailed
as the most apathetic demographic in the nation. For decades, they have
voted at rates between 10 percent and 25 percent lower than the
national average.
Massive efforts by campaigns such as Rock the Vote to get young
people to the polls for the 2004 presidential election paid off, and
participation rates for the youngest voters increased to 47 percent, up
11 percentage points from 2000.
But overall voting rates increased too, and 18- to 24-year-olds were
outperformed in 2004 by every other age demographic, with the national
average participation rate at 64 percent.
In search of the youth vote
No matter how far behind young voters lag, they're still a
demographic coveted by those running for office -- as long as targeting
them doesn't put off more politically active age groups.
Usually, candidates have to cater to the majority, said Jaime Smith,
communications director for Democrat Darcy Burner's campaign for the
House in the 8th Congressional District.
"In campaigns, there's a numbers game you have to play," she said.
"Usually you find the bigger percentage (of constituents) are
middle-aged or older ... but there's definitely no discounting how
important younger voters are, especially when campaigns come down to a
few hundred votes."
The number of registered King County voters between the age of 18
and 24 who voted in 2004 increased more than 20 percent from 2000 to
2004, according to numbers submitted by the county to Secretary of
State Sam Reed's office.
Mike McGavick, a Republican vying for a seat in the Senate, will be
targeting young people to help give him an edge over Sen. Maria
Cantwell on the ballot this November, said Julie Sund, McGavick's
communications director.
McGavick's campaign will be relying on peer-to-peer outreach by young supporters to help cultivate supporters.
"From the start, we thought that college students would be an
important part of our success," she said. "We have a good group of
college students who are already getting organized."
Political campaigns have to start employing new strategies if
politicians expect to reach younger voters, and one of those strategies
is paying attention to technological trends, Smith said.
"It just so happens that youth tend to be engaged in a much
different way than older demographics, and a lot of that has to do with
technology," Smith said.
Burner and McGavick are using blogs and podcasts in their bids for
congressional seats, a tactic Smith said might appeal to young voters
as well as others who are technologically savvy.
Washington campaigns aren't necessarily at the forefront of
high-tech outreach. Mobile Voter, an organization based in San
Francisco, has been working for several years to register 18- to
29-year-olds using text messages.
But all the technological advances in the world might not be enough
to reach every young voter, said Todd Donovan, a professor of political
science at Western Washington University. A lot of times, it's a matter
of the environment they were brought up in.
"If your parents are apolitical, odds are greater that you will be too," he said in an e-mail.
"That's why I don't vote"
For some, questioning why they don't vote misses the mark. The real question is: Why should they?
In many cases, apathy in those barely older than18 arises from
feelings that politicians don't do anything that hits close to home,
Donovan said
"I think for many young people, they are less likely to see that
government affects their lives," he said. "It's not until they get into
professions or unions or trades that this is more obvious."
Disenchantment with political parties, politicians and the
government is high on the list of reasons many young voters say they're
apathetic.
"I was in the military -- that's why I don't vote," said James
Hamilton, 22, of Seattle. "Bush got re-elected, so I just figured I
won't vote anymore ... I (supported) Al Gore and John Kerry, and
neither of them got elected."
Adam Skoflanc, 19, of Seattle said he is registered to vote but never does.
"I never know what to vote for," Skoflanc said. "Either way, it
doesn't really matter. Every (politician) stands for something good and
something bad."
Steve Jones, 21, agreed. The last politician he voted for was Arnold Schwarzenegger, when he was living in California.
"If there was someone I felt I believed in, I would definitely get out there for them."
"A mutual cycle of neglect"
Anna Trisnawati, 27, studied young-voter apathy while she was a
student at UCLA before moving to Seattle. A non-voter herself, she can
commiserate with what she learned while researching the subject.
"Nobody ever tells us to vote," said Trisnawati, a legal assistant. "Politicians never really go for younger people."
Young Voter Strategies, a non-profit organization at The George
Washington University, is one of many organizations that have taken
comments such as Trisnawati's to heart.
When asked to, young people will vote, said Kathleen Barr, national media coordinator for the organization.
The problem is that politicians don't tend to court young voters
since the demographic hasn't been politically active in the past, and
youth issues get neglected because of it, Barr said.
"Over the years it's sort of spun into this cycle of mutual neglect," she said.
Former President Clinton blazed a trail into young voter's hearts in 1992 when he played saxophone on MTV.
That along, with an emphasis on education, might have helped spur 43
percent of eligible voters between 18 and 24 to cast their votes in
that election, up seven percentage points from 1988.
But after 1992, participation percentages slumped back into the 30s.
Young Voter Strategies encourages candidates to reach out to the
forgotten demographic by meeting young voters halfway, Barr said.
"There are ways candidates can talk about those issues that are more relevant to young people," she said.
"When they're talking about the Iraq war, politicians usually say
things like 'your sons and daughters,' and really, they're peers and
friends too."
"Make them pay attention"
No matter what the outcome of mobilization efforts, statistics suggest that sooner or later, most people will end up voters.
In the 2004 general election, 73 percent of 55- to 74-year-olds
voted. Averages for those within 10 years on either end of the
demographic were slightly lower.
"People vote because they care about the outcome of certain
decisions," said Brent Ludeman, the state chairman of the Washington
College Republicans Federation, in an e-mail. "Younger people have
fewer decisions to worry about so they are less inclined to vote than
those with more on the line."
But what some young people don't realize is that they do have
something on the line, Olson said while taking a break from registering
voters on the UW campus last week.
By not voting, young people are sacrificing political power, he said.
Maybe the catchphrase of the national New Voters Project, which Olson's group is part of, sums it up best.
Displayed in large, handwritten letters on a sign taped to one
lonely table in the middle of Red Square, the slogan stood out: "Make
them pay attention to us."
"Politicians don't do a lot to represent young people," Olson said. "It's a vicious cycle. We're trying to break that cycle."
