From Our Corner

In response to the ongoing conversation about the youth vote turnout (here, here and here), I recently brought the question to Twitter: How do we better reach the 18-24s? @einmaleins suggested “finding a way of having them vote with their cell phones perhaps??” But what about cell phones is the hit? Is convenience the key, or is it the novelty? @einmaleins follows up and says:  I think both. Convenience, cause it fits their lifestyle and novelty as in making politics exciting and the…

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Lindsay from our Elections Division, who works with young voters year-round, offers her perspective on the 2008 voter turnout and why those 18-24 year olds turn in fewer ballots than the older crowd: “As a Millennial myself, I’ve got to say that I’m not fussed about the turnout.  It’s not a new problem.  It seems to correct itself with age.  The Gen Xers weren’t any better.  In fact, the worst youth turnout on record was the 1996 election.  FYI, the oldest…

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Last week, Dave wrote about how the number of 18-24-year-old voters who took part in last November’s election was still below the turnout of older voters, despite all of the hype about  how the “Obama factor” was going to up young voter turnout. I wanted to hear from a “Millennial” about why fewer of them vote compared to Boomers and seniors  and what can be done to get more of them to participate. So I checked in with my niece, Carlyn, who is a first-year vet school student at WSU. (BTW, Carlyn assured me that she…

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