In this year's Iowa caucuses, 17 percent of participants were in their 20s or younger, up from 9 percent in 2000, according to the Harvard University Institute of Politics. The institute reports that 87 percent of college students say they are registered, while a University of Maryland survey found that 62 percent of students say they will definitely vote Tuesday. That's substantially higher than the 36 percent of young voters who made it to the polls in 2000, according to the USA Today.
Campuses are flooded with political posters, and heated conversations in college bars are just as likely to be about who won the last presidential debate as who is calling whom "daddy" this baseball season.
The nonpartisan campaigns aimed at inspiring us to take part in our democracy are endless: Rock the Vote, Choose or Lose, the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network, Redeem the Vote, Virgin Voter, Punk Voter and Cast the Vote are just a few examples. Bruce Springsteen launched his "Vote for Change" tour with nearly 20 popular artists in tow. Pop idol Christina Aguilera and Andre 3000 of Outcast glare down on Times Square from giant billboards, mouths sewn shut, taunting us with the reminder, "Only you can silence yourself."
If America's youth has genuinely been infected with newfound political fervor, the election may not be as close as the polls have shown. After all, national polls and surveys use land lines, not cellphones, when measuring voter opinion, and most of us rely solely on cellphones.
These surveys are aimed at "likely voters," or those who have previously voted; for many of us, this is our first election. If we are overwhelmingly leaning toward either President George W. Bush or Sen. John Kerry, we could decide the election. The 2000 election showed us that a small number of voters can make an important difference, and this year it could be we who swing the outcome one way or the other.
