Staff Editorial | Youth vote drives record turnout in 2008 primaries

While most Americans are focused on the dramatic give-and-take between the various political candidates, there is an encouraging broader trend occurring in the background: In all of the states that have voted thus far, voter turnout has reached record highs.

Many commentators have focused on the rise in Democratic party voters, but Republican turnout has also been high. For example, in Tennessee (a state in which Democratic turnout almost tripled), Republican turnout doubled from 2000, the last year in which there was a competitive presidential primary. Many states throughout the nation have experienced similar increases.

Unlike many of our peer institutions’ student-run newspapers, The Miscellany News has not endorsed a candidate for the 2008 presidential election. Instead of a candidate, The Miscellany News is campaigning for voter turnout—for all parties.

Electoral politics in America operates along party lines, but advocating active engagement in the electoral process is mainly about the civic duty of voting. This is a duty that college students have been criticized for neglecting in the past.

Young voters have helped drive the current phenomenon of high turnout, and in some states the youth vote has increased at even greater rates than the general turnout. Missouri, for instance, saw its estimated youth participation rates triple from its 2000 level. In total, more than three million young people (defined as those voters between the ages of 18 and 29) participated in Super Tuesday.

There are reasons for this increase. First, Super Tuesday marked a movement toward a national primary day and enfranchised millions of voters who in the past had been brushed aside. Second, the 2008 primary has clearly been a more competitive race than in recent elections.

Most importantly, voters are finding the candidates more appealing this year. The situation has even led The New York Times columnist Gail Collins to write that, as opposed to most elections in recent memory, this isn’t a race that requires voters to “hold their noses” when voting.

The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, a prominent youth advocacy group, has long held that the best way to reach youth voters is to use interactive campaigns. This year’s candidates have taken this message to heart.

Both Facebook and the candidates’ Web sites have become much more interactive. All of the candidates have a place on their Web sites where supporters can join Myspace-like groups. Supporters can make their own Web pages, connect to like-minded individuals in their area, plan parties and gain access to “insider” information such as candidate appearances and conference calls.

The success of these new technological operations should not be surprising to many readers of this paper. Our generation perceives civic engagement in a very different way from our parents’ generation. For better or for worse, we are far more likely to comment on a blog post than to attend a public forum on community and race relations.

College students live much of their lives on the Internet, so it is understandable that we express our political views digitally. Replacing your Facebook photo with that of your favorite candidate is the new version of placing a lawn sign outside of your house. This year’s candidates are recognizing this and are changing how their campaigns interact with young voters.

However, this surge in the youth vote trend is by no means permanent, and could be merely passing trend, one of many that grabs our interest and then peters out.

We must recognize that what matters most is extending the voting enthusiasm of Super Tuesday to the rest of the year. If young voters fail to sustain their engagement, the incredible turnout of the 2008 primaries will be nothing but another moment in which our demographic showed a glimmer of false hope which quickly faded.

For information about how to register to vote, visit eac.gov/voter.

—The staff editorial reflects the opinion of at least two-thirds of the 13-member editorial board.