WASHINGTON – Despite last-minute appeals from both parties, a slightly smaller percentage of America’s youth voted Tuesday compared with the 2006 midterm elections. Just 20 percent of 18 to 29-year-old registered voters cast their ballots Tuesday, according to exit poll projections from CIRCLE, a Tufts University group that studies youth voter behavior. The turnout rate for young voters in 2006 was 26 percent.
Peter Levine, director of Circle, said the 20 percent turnout rate was not particularly unusual for a midterm election year.
Youth voting experts blamed both of the political parties and individual campaigns for the dip in youth voter turnout. They suggested that if the parties and campaigns had more consistently engaged young voters, more Millenials would have voted, especially after the landmark youth turnout in the 2008 presidential election.
While both parties pushed for youth support in the weeks leading up to the election, it was too little too for many young voters, according to Matthew Segal, executive director of the nonpartisan Student Organization for Voter Empowerment.
“Both parties did not extend a huge amount of resources, rhetoric and attention to young voters until right around the election,” Segal said. “It sends a message that young people are being used for their votes but are not being called on for their ideas.”
Segal said that a lack of a consistent dialogue between political leaders and young voters over the past two years led to disenchantment and disinterest among America’s youth.
Democrats and Republicans also did little to change youth political opinion. Even in an election in which Republicans made historic congressional gains, young voters still preferred Democrats to Republicans by a wide margin – 56 to 40 percent in House of Representatives races, according to CIRCLE. Just 10 years ago, youth support for Republicans and Democrats was evenly divided.
Yet youth voter turnout was slightly higher Tuesday in “red states” than in “blue states.” Levine said the reason for this is unclear, but two possible explanations exist. First, young liberal voters in red states may have been particularly motivated to get to the polls and vote against conservative candidates. The other possibility is that young conservative voters in red states were simply more enthusiastic this year than young voters in left-leaning states.
The latter theory is supported by Rob Lockwood, director of communications for the College Republican National Committee. While young voters might still prefer the Democrats nationwide, Lockwood said young conservatives had a significant impact in certain races.
The College Republicans heavily invested their efforts into mobilizing young conservatives in five swing states: Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, Michigan and Nevada. Lockwood said Republican successes in those states Tuesday was partially due to the participation and engagement of young Republican voters.
“If you look in our states, I’m not saying college Republicans are making the difference,” Lockwood said. “But we’re making a difference.”
Meanwhile, Democrats may have missed an opportunity to capitalize on their youth support in this election, according to Heather Smith, president of Rock the Vote. Coming off a record level of youth engagement in Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, Democrats failed to build on the momentum of 2008 and continue to turn out young voters at an elevated rate.
“It could have been a very different outcome last night with investments from candidates in young people,” Smith said. “The Democrats could have seen a very different outcome had they engaged in targeting young voters.”