Youth vote

Examples of Youth vote in the following topics:

• Age and Participation

  • Voter turnout among eighteen- to twenty-four-year-olds dropped from 50 percent in 1972, the first presidential election year after the voting age was lowered to eighteen, to 36 percent in 2000.
  • While younger people turn out in elections less often than older people, youth voting has been on the rise in presidential elections since 2004.
  • Young voter turnout rose to 47 percent in 2004 and 51 percent in 2008, partly as a result of voter registration and mobilization efforts by groups like Rock the Vote.
  • The youth vote contributed to the success of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012, as young volunteers provided countless hours of campaign support.
  • Barack Obama's presidential campaigns were successful partly as a result of youth participation.

• Additional Factors: Gender, Age, Religion, Race, and Ethnicity

  • Certain factors like age, gender, race, and religion help describe why people vote and who is more likely to vote.
  • However, the youth vote has been on the rise: turnout among 18 to 24-year-olds was at 36 percent in 2000, but this rose to 47 percent in 2004 and 51 percent in 2008.
  • This rise in youth vote is partly a result of voter registration and mobilization efforts by groups like Rock the Vote.
  • New technology, especially the internet, is also making it easier for candidates to reach the youth.
  • In 2008, 48 percent of Asian Americans turned out to vote.

• Factors Affecting Voter Turnout

  • When asked why they do not vote, many people report that they have too little free time.
  • Older people tend to vote more than youths, so societies where the average age is somewhat higher, such as Europe; have higher turnouts than somewhat younger countries such as the United States.
  • Making voting compulsory has a direct and dramatic effect on turnout.
  • Ease of voting is a factor in rates of turnout.
  • This suppression can be in the form of unfair tests or requirements to vote.

• Voting as Political Participation

  • Voting is the most quintessential form of political participation, although many eligible voters do not vote in elections.
  • Every citizen gets one vote that counts equally .
  • Rock the Vote (RTV), a nonpartisan youth mobilization organization, established the first online voter registration initiative in 1992 with official backing from the Congressional Internet Caucus.
  • Still, many people do not vote regularly.
  • Social, cultural, and economic factors can keep people from voting, or sometimes barriers to voting are informal.

• The Election of 1984

  • Reagan won the election of 1984 in a landslide, winning 58.8% of the popular vote to Mondale's 40.6% and a record 525 electoral votes.
  • Mondale's only electoral votes came from the District of Columbia and his home state of Minnesota, which he won by a mere 3,761 votes.
  • In the national popular vote, Reagan received 58.8% to Mondale's 40.6%.
  • I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent's youth and inexperience.
  • 1984 presidential electoral votes by state.

• The 2008 Election

  • Obama received the most votes for a presidential candidate in American history, winning the popular and electoral vote by the largest margin in 12 years.
  • A Democrat had not won the popular vote by that large of a margin in nearly a half-century.
  • In ads and at campaign rallies, Obama pointed out that McCain had voted with Bush 90% of the time, and congressional voting records supported this for the years Bush was in office.
  • Obama's youthful vigor drew independents and first-time voters, and he won 95% of the African American vote and 44% of the white vote.
  • Numbers indicate electoral votes allotted to the winner of each state.

• Voter Turnout

  • Some studies show that a single vote in a voting scheme such as the Electoral College in the United States has an even lower chance of determining the outcome.
  • The decline in voting has also accompanied a general decline in civic participation, such as church attendance, membership in professional, fraternal, and student societies, youth groups, and parent-teacher associations.
  • Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) won the popular vote in 28 states and the District of Columbia (denoted in blue) to capture 365 electoral votes.
  • Senator John McCain (R-AZ) won the popular vote in 22 states (denoted in red) to capture 173 electoral votes.
  • Nebraska split its electoral vote when Senator Obama won the electoral vote from Nebraska's 2nd congressional district; the state's other four electoral votes went to Senator McCain.

• Low Voter Turnout

  • There are difficulties in measuring both the numerator, the number of voters who cast votes, and the denominator, the number of voters eligible to vote.
  • Furthermore, voters who do cast ballots may abstain, deliberately voting for nobody, or they may spoil their votes, either accidentally or as an act of protest.
  • The voting age population (VAP) refers to the set of individuals that have reached the minimum voting age for a particular geography or political unit.
  • In estimating voter turnout the voting age population for a political unit is often used as the denominator for the number of individuals eligible to vote in a given election; this method has been shown to lose inaccuracy when a larger percentage of the VAP is ineligible to vote.
  • The decline in voting has also accompanied a general decline in civic participation, such as church attendance, membership in professional, fraternal, and student societies, youth groups, and parent-teacher associations.

• Student Subcultures

  • Youth music genres are associated with many youth subcultures; among them are punks, emos, ravers, Juggalos, metalheads and goths.
  • A youth subculture is group of young people defined by distinct styles, behaviors and interests.
  • Youth music genres are associated with many youth subcultures, and include punks, emos, ravers, Juggalos, metalheads and goths .
  • Early studies in youth culture were mainly produced by those interested in functional sociology and focus on youth as a single form of culture.
  • Discuss the definition and purpose of a subculture, especially for youth in society

• The Role of Age

  • Young people are much less likely to vote than are older people and are less likely to be politicians.
  • The lower voting rates of young people in the U.S. help explain why things like Medicare and Social Security in the U.S. are facing looming crises—the elderly will retain many of the benefits of these programs and are unwilling to allow them to be changed even though young people will be the ones to suffer the consequences of these crises.
  • Older people are also more organized, through organizations like the AARP, and they are more likely to vote as a block on issues that affect them directly.