By Jessica Durando

© DiversityInc 2007 ® All rights reserved. No article on this site can be reproduced by any means, print, electronic or any other, without prior written permission of the publisher.

 

Jessica Durando is a DiversityInc intern and editor-in-chief of the Rutgers University student newspaper.

When Sen. Hillary Clinton came to Rutgers University to speak about women and politics last month, she mistakenly called MySpace "MyFace." The crowd, mostly comprised of college students, laughed at her generational faux pas. But it is ironic that Clinton probably has more "friends" on her MySpace page—more than 53,000—than the entire room combined.

Barack Obama clocks in at more than 34,000 MySpace friends on his page and has a biography on the site.

Why? Clinton and Obama are examples of the many politicians who are using social-networking sites to ask for donations, get people involved in their campaigns, and feed Internet-obsessed youth news about their campaign trail.  

Candidates are using other methods as well to get to youth voters. The Barack Obama for America campaign sends out press releases to college newspapers across the country. Sometimes I get two a day in my inbox. (See also: Make MySpace & Facebook Work for You: The Best Way to Reach Young People in the May 2007 issue of DiversityInc magazine)

His press secretary, Bill Burton, also holds conference calls with college editors. In a conference call, Burton said Obama's reasoning for getting the youth behind him is because "he specifically points to the fact that at every important juncture in our history it was young folks who stepped up and forced change to happen."

John McCain, the Arizona senator, takes it a step further to list his favorite TV show on MySpace—"24." The Republican hopeful may have added it because he enjoys the show—or better yet, because younger generations have an intense affection for Jack Bauer.

With political contenders racing to recruit youth voters to back their campaigns, it has become a matter of contention how long a candidate should spend on the age group that traditionally "doesn't vote." Are politicians wasting their time on a demographic that historically has failed to come through?

Well, the truth is we vote. We have voted in increased numbers in the past two elections. And recent polls reveal we are backing Obama.

Obama is leading with 35 percent among 18- to 24-year-old voters, according to a Harvard survey conducted online with nearly 3,000 participants. Hill.com reported on April 19 that Clinton came in second with 28 percent and John Edwards retained 9 percent of younger voters.

There has been speculation among pundits that the 2008 presidential election could mirror youth voter turnout of the 1992 election, which yielded 48.6 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds. That year had the highest youth voting record in the last 30 years, according to Hill.com.

The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement reports that youth voting surged by 11 percentage points in the last presidential election. Between 1992 and 2000 election years, the youth turnout rate declined by 16 percentage points and then went up significantly in 2004.

In 2004, 47 percent of eligible 18- to 24-year-olds voted, and 66 percent of those 25 and older who were eligible voted, according to CIRCLE statistics.

CIRCLE also found that the surge in youth voting was propelled by an increase in black votes. The last election saw an 11 percent increase in young, black votes compared with the 2000 election.

And young adults voted for the Democratic candidate over the Republican candidate in the House of Representatives race, 58 percent to 38, the Senate, 60 percent to 33, and governor, 55 to 34.

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