Campus Activists Urge Youths to Vote
WASHINGTON—As Democratic presidential hopefuls court Connecticut college students before the state’s primary March 2, campus activists are fighting to round up elusive youth voters.
It won’t be an easy task. Young people historically vote in small numbers, and Connecticut college students have shown little interest in a race that could be wrapped up when voters in their state and nine others weigh in on Super Tuesday, less than three weeks from now.
Nirupam Sinha, president of the College Democrats at Yale University, said that his organization has not yet endorsed a candidate. However, individual coalitions have been lining up student support for Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean and Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina.
Sinha is one of a number of students at Connecticut universities working to educate students on campaign issues and encouraging them to vote. Despite their efforts, politicians frequently ignore the concerns of college-age kids because statistically, 18- to 24-year-olds are the least likely age group to turn up at the polls.
Curtis Gans, director of the nonpartisan Committee for the Study of the American Electorate, said young people’s interest in politics has declined significantly since the tumultuous 1960s. But, he added, it has grown slightly in the last year.
Gans noted that a recent poll conducted by the University of California at Los Angeles found that, in the 1960s, fully 60 percent of young people “expressed political interest.” This year, he said, 34 percent of freshmen were interested in politics, as opposed to 29 percent three years ago.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, voter turnout among 18- to 24-year-olds dropped from 50 percent in 1972, which was the first year 18-year-olds could vote, to 32 percent in both 1996 and 2000.
Initially led by Dean, who appealed to young people through a strong Internet campaign, this year’s Democratic contenders have made a special effort to reach out to youth.
Gans said he expects some increase in young voters in November. But, he added, “I don’t think it will be a tidal wave.”
Sinha said he expected more young people to vote in 2004 than four years ago, in part because of the less than 500,000 votes that separated George W. Bush from Al Gore. Although Gore, then the vice president, won the popular vote, the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately ruled that Bush won in the Electoral College.
“I think people oftentimes think they can’t make an impact,” Sinha said. “But I think especially right now, for students who remember 2000, they are very dissatisfied with the current administration. People are motivated,” Sinha continued. “They’ve realized that every vote is important and does matter.”
Sinha said the Yale College Democrats helped the presidential campaignsin New Hampshire and attended fundraisers before that state’s Jan. 27 primary. Kristina Riordan, president of the College Democrats at Fairfield University, spent five days in New Hampshire campaigning for Kerry.
“Politicians are never going to start catering to students’ interests until we show that we’re a group to be listened to,” Riordan said.
Because students don’t vote in large numbers, politicians neglect their top concerns, such as financial aid funding, Riordan said. “If students voted, that would be an issue politicians would talk about instead of health care,” she said.
Young people’s interest in politics has been siphoned off by presidential scandals, from Richard Nixon’s Watergate to Bill Clinton’s womanizing, Riordan said. “Every politician seems to lie to us,” she said.
But Riordan said that former President Ronald Reagan’s administration also played a hand in forming her generation’s view of the political process. Reagan’s preference for small government helped shape the way she looks at politics, Riordan said.
“Anti-government, anti-politics – that’s the era we were raised in,” Riordan said.
Riordan, who was born in Washington, D.C., said she has always been surrounded by politics. But for some students, she said, political participation was “really not in their consciousness.”
Riordan’s housemate and fellow Fairfield student, Emily McAdam, is the vice-chairwoman of the Connecticut Union of College Republicans, which presides over the 10 schools in Connecticut that have College Republican chapters.
McAdam said Fairfield’s College Republicans have organized membership drives to get students involved. The drives, which usually last three days, sometimes attract up to 100 new members each day, McAdam said. Social events, meetings and guest speakers have been used to entice young Republicans to get active during the election year.
by Michelle Knueppel
The drives work because “a lot of the time students aren’t going to take the initiative on their own. They need someone to get in their face,” McAdam said.
McAdam also said that young people need a special candidate to peak their interest. “If they’re like the typical rich old white guy running for office, students won’t be really receptive. They can’t relate to that,” McAdam said. “We need someone to excite us.”
She didn’t mention who that might be. Both Bush and Democratic frontrunner Kerry are wealthy and white.
On the flip side, McAdam said, college students forfeit their say in elections by failing to vote.
“It’s a vicious cycle. College students don’t vote, so politicians don’t pay any attention to them,” McAdam said. “We’re not in a position to demand that politicians listen to us.”
Though Riordan and McAdam are at opposite ends of the political spectrum, McAdam said they are best friends. “We both want to be active because we care about our country,” she said. “In that way, we have a lot in common.”
Jerold Duquette, a political scientist at Central Connecticut State University, said more Connecticut students were interested in the presidential campaign when one of the state’s senators, Joseph Lieberman, was a candidate. Lieberman dropped out of the Democratic race last week after losing all the early primaries.
“Before Joe Lieberman got out of the race, there was some energy there,” he said.
Art Paulson, a political scientist at Southern Connecticut University, said students’ top election concerns are the war in Iraq and jobs.
Paulson, who advises the College Democrats, said students were “less apathetic now than in previous years because of the war.
“I don’t think it comes close to the involvement of the student population during the Vietnam War,” he added.
Before any voters went to the polls, Paulson said, his students “were ready to formally endorse Howard Dean because his Internet campaign and anti-war position were highly popular.” But, he said, as Dean began to fall further and further behind Kerry, “Democrats of all kinds are beginning to circle the wagon around Kerry.”
