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Getting It Wrong

Twenty-year-old Joshua Clayton lives six miles away from the Cal campus, in West Oakland. Walking around his neighborhood, he says it’s pretty much been the same his whole life, no matter who is president. Lots of poverty, too much violence, and decaying infrastructure. As for politicians: “To me, nobody deserves my hope,” Clayton told me. “Because not one person on earth can prove themselves.” Clayton didn’t want to vote because he didn’t expect it to change anything. But his grandma kept working on him, telling him, “One vote really can make a difference.” And he surprised even himself, and cast a ballot. - Sayre Quevedo, Youth Radio, 11.9.12

If you've followed the headlines for the past six months, you never would have predicted that young people like Joshua Clayton would find their way to the voting booth. One thing seemed (almost) sure: the youth vote in the 2102 Election would fall short of its 2008 record. Way short, some intoned.

Since March, we have tracked and posted what mainstream and alternative media were saying—and predicting—about the youth turnout in the 2012 election.Youth voting, we were told, had returned to its old "normal": tending toward apathetic. Obama had let down his 2008 young supporters, it seemed, and this disillusionment would keep them from the ballot box in 2012. The sour economy, we heard, had also soured youth on the practice of citizenship.

They got it wrong.

The post-election headlines—to our delight—sing a different song. Here are some examples.

Youth vote decides presidential election – again. Is this the new normal? The youth vote proved decisive in Tuesday's presidential election, just as it did in 2008. But this year, it was a far greater surprise.

Millennials made it to the polls in droves Tuesday – proving themselves a central voting bloc in swing states and defying speculation that their enthusiasm had waned since the days of Barack Obama’s historic candidacy in 2008.

People age 18 to 29 made up 19 percent of voters in this election cycle, up 1 percentage point from 2008, according to early National Exit Poll (NEP) data. President Obama won this age group with 60 percent support, versus 37 percent for Mitt Romney.

If Mr. Romney had received at least 50 percent of the support of this age group in the swing states of Ohio, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Florida, 80 electoral votes would have gone his way, winning him the presidency, according to an analysis by CIRCLE, an independent research center that measures youth engagement in politics. . . .

Christian Science Monitor, 11.7.12

Why Everyone Got The Youth Vote Wrong

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Electoral College Results: How the Youth Vote Cost Romney the Presidential Election

There is a popular sentiment that the GOP is the party of “old, white men” and this was heavily reflected in the 2012 presidential election. Not only did women and minorities vote heavily for Obama, but also the youth vote came out in not just similar numbers, but slightly higher numbers than in 2008.

Predictions that the youth voter turnout of 2008 was a fluke or that the youth is largely apathetic fell flat on Tuesday. Youth voters, aged 18-29, turned out as 19% of the electoral vote – a 1% increase from the 2008 election – and these voters were overwhelmingly in favor of President Obama.

Although youth voters were not as one-sided in 2012 as in 2008 (66% and 32% in 2008 vs. 60% and 37% in 2012) it still had a substantial impact on the election. According to a study by The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, the youth vote affected “at least 80” electoral votes. Had Romney been able to split the youth vote in key states like Ohio (62% Obama vs. 35% Romney) or Florida (66% Obama vs. 32% Romney), these blue states could have flipped to red.

In the words of Heather Smith, President of Rock the Vote: “I think we’ve now established a fairly decent pattern that this generation is different from their older brothers and sisters, and we can put those rumors of apathy to bed … This voting bloc can no longer be an afterthought to any party or campaign.” Hopefully, these numbers will continue to rise and we can truly put “the apathy of the youth” behind us. To continue to increase the youth vote, the Fair Elections Legal Network recommends implementing flexible voting registration and improving voting practices as well as targeting young voters specifically for registration and education. These voters are often uninformed about where to vote, when they need to register by, etc. – factors that affect older, seasoned voters to a far lesser degree. . . .

policymic.com, 11.10.12

The Run-Up to the 2012 Election: Commentary, News, and Reports on Youth and Politics

"If more young people spent time reading up and thinking seriously about how this election is going to affect them, we would have so much power in deciding who will be the next president. We need to stop making excuses and take part in making this society better. If we don't get out the vote, we have only ourselves to blame when our leaders ignore us and make bad decisions." - teen journalist George Edwards, in his article "Election 2012: Why More Youth Should Vote."

NOVEMBER 2012

Youth Engagement Rises Ahead Of Election Day, Survey Finds Young Voters Still Favor Obama (HuffPost Politics, 11.2.12)

Driving the Presidential Election: The Youth Vote (HuffPost College, 11.2.12)

Election Results & the Youth Vote: Teacher Partners with Errol Morris and Our Time to Rally Young Voters (gather.com, 11.2.12)

Seattle youth defy national voter apathy trends (Seattle Times, 11.2.12)

Youth voters engaged in presidential election; favor Obama 52-35%, survey shows (examiner.com, 11.2.12)

OCTOBER 2012

Poll: Half of young Latinos intend to vote (NBC Latino, 10.31.12)

Youth vote up in the air (The Orion, 10.30.12)

Obama looks to young voters, many of whom seem uninspired (Los Angeles Times, 10.29.12)

Cultivating youth vote more difficult after four years of hardship (Las Vegas Sun, 10.28.12)

Dignity Beyond Voting: Undocumented Immigrants Cast Their Hopes (The Nation, 10.25.12)