Will Young Voters Be Decisive? -- 2008 Edition
In the run-up to every recent presidential election, we’ve been told that this time young voters are really going to make a difference. I’m not sure they ever do, but I confess that I haven’t followed the research on this issue closely at all. Maybe lots of convincing evidence has piled up that I just don’t know about. If so, I’m hoping that some well informed readers of “The Monkey Cage” will give the rest of us a sense of what it says.
In the meantime, here is something to jump-start a conversation about the youth vote this time around.
[Hat tip to Carol Sigelman]
Comments
Good research on this from the various CIRCLE groups, IOP at Harvard (David King is running the research end), and at University of Washington (http://www.civicyouth.org/grants/past/pol_partic.htm#17). David Nickerson is doing some work at Notre Dame also.
Anyway, long story short: youth participation is up, but it is still utterly swamped by older portions of the population. And even as youth participation rises, participation in other segments may rise even more.
Posted by: paul g. | January 31, 2008 03:30 PM