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The big election question:
What will young voters do?

Candidates Barack Obama and John McCain and supporters have used personal pages on social network sites like Facebook and MySpace to connect with new and young voters.

In a presidential election, young voters are like cell-phone minutes. It’s great to have a lot of them, but if they don’t get put to use, they’re worthless.

Millions of young people are eligible to vote in this presidential election — 44 million between the ages of 18 and 29, according to the latest statistics.

And young voters make up a large chunk of the 9 million new voters who have registered for this year’s election.

The challenge for candidates John McCain and Barack Obama is how to get young voters to show up at the polls and vote on Election Day.

Getting young voters to vote has been a challenge for candidates ever since the voting age was lowered from 21 to 18 in 1971 with the 26th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

In the 2004 presidential election, less than half of eligible 18- to 24-year-olds voted, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, despite efforts by celebrities, MTV and youth voting organizations to get them involved.

While the 2004 youth vote was up 11 percentage points from the 2000 presidential race, the 47 percent youth turnout was far below the 72 percent of citizens 55 and older who voted in ’04.

After extremely close presidential races in 2000 and 2004, registering new voters was a top priority this year for both Republicans and Democrats — but especially for the Democrats, who lost both times to President Bush.

Election experts expect registrations to top the record of 177 million people set in 2004, and actual voting to exceed the record 126 million who voted that year.

In states where the outcome is close, youth voters could make the difference — if they turn out and vote.

Hi-tech outreach

To reach and excite young voters, candidates are using communications tools and technology in ways never tried before.

In addition to their official Web sites, the candidates have set up personal pages on the Facebook and MySpace social networks to let young voters get to know their views, preferences and life stories online.

They also have encouraged supporters who belong to Facebook and MySpace to use the networking capabilities on these sites to organize rallies, volunteer efforts and other political activities.

They have collected cell phone numbers and e-mail addresses and linked them to computer programs that send out calls and e-mails.

And for the first time, campaigns and their supporters have used the Internet video site YouTube to spread messages, criticize opponents and spotlight candidate activities.

Who will benefit?

Both parties agree that Democrats have been more successful in registering voters who support them this year.

In eight key states, USA Today reported this month, Democrats added 800,000 voters while Republican registrations went down.

But that is only part of the story for Election Day.

In 2000 and 2004, Republicans had much more success than Democrats getting their supporters to vote.

The challenge for Democrats is whether they can match the get-out-the-vote effort of Republicans in the states that may determine the winner.

In the first presidential election after the voting age was lowered from 21 to 18, about 50 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds voted, according to the U.S. Census. In 2004, just 47 percent of young people voted for president. As a class, discuss why it is important for young people to vote in national elections, and why you think so many young people don’t vote. Then brainstorm ideas to get young voters out to vote on Election Day November 4.

From jobs to college loans to the war in Iraq, many issues have direct effects on young voters and their families. Use the newspaper this week to make a list of issues in the news that affect young people, children and families. Rank them in order of importance to you. Then write a question you would like to ask presidential candidates about your two top issues.

Web sites, e-mail and social networks like Facebook and MySpace have revolutionized the way young people communicate. They also have transformed the way presidential candidates communicate. Find a story about one of the candidates. Pick an issue he is talking about and write a paragraph describing how you would use the Internet to communicate the candidate’s views to young voters.

Art can be a powerful tool for expressing opinions in an election. How would you use art to get young voters to vote? Collect words and images from the newspaper to create a collage to inspire young people to vote. Or use what you find to plan a YouTube video.