by Laura Strickler
YOUTH VOTE/STRICKLER
March 5, 2004 Broadcast
INTRO
Voter turnout on Super Tuesday was low in New York state, but for youth voters it was abysmal. Voters under the age of 30 make up almost one quarter of the voting population, yet the problem, political analysts say - is that they overwhelmingly ignore the polls. In a tight presidential election, youth mobilization could push a candidate over the top. Laura Strickler reports the trick is, getting them to vote.
NARR
Outside a polling station at a housing project in Harlem, the red and yellow jungle gyms were quiet.
Sound inside polling station up
Inside, poll workers for Super Tuesday outnumber voters 10 to one. Building residents were in and out of the lobby, but poll workers said it was a slow voting day. Even slower for young voters in the neighborhood. Karen Jefferson has worked at the polling station for over twenty years and says getting young people to vote is a tough sell.
AX Jefferson
They need to vote but then again they need to find a way to reach them. i mean it's like people are votin but these young people don't see where anything is coming out of it. that's like telling the kid you're going to taking a kid to the movies and then all of a sudden you don't go and that kid is hurt you not given these people nothing to look up to.
NARR
A 21 year old security guard who lives in the building joined us at the table. As a Haitian-American, Andy Gustave says he's concerned about foreign policy first, but he's also troubled by problems facing young black men in harlem.
GUSTAVE
I think that it would help the neighborhood if there were more minority police officers, more officers that grew up in the ghetto and the projects.
NARR
But although Gustave hangs out with pollworkers AND shares strong political opinions, he STILL doesn't vote. He's not even registered. He's part of the newest voting block of voters between 18 and 24, what is now being called Generation Y. According to Democracy Corps, a Democratic based non-profit, this new group is coming of age and is expected to be as large as the baby boomers. They are more liberal and diverse than Generation X, making them a key target for Democrats this fall. Yet they are also somewhat less engaged. A Yale University study found young people pay less attention to civic affairs than their counterparts a generation ago.
campaign party sound
NARR
New, young energy has been one of the products of John Edwards and Howard Dean's campaigns. On the night of Super Tuesday, Edwards supporters gathered at a bar in Union Square. Anh Ly, a young Edwards volunteer was disappointed as she watched John Kerry's victory speech. But she's still excited that Edwards energized young voters like herself.
AX-LY
i mean if you look at his volunteer group, it's a lot of young bright enthusiastic democrats and i think he did the best job of young voters and that's why you see a lot of Dean folks coming over to his campaign.
NARR
Yet she's not surprised by the small youth voter turnout on Super Tuesday.
AX LY
i think it's hard because if you look at the way that this administration has treated people, it's easy to see why they don't want to be a part of the process.
NARR
She blames youth apathy on President Bush, but numbers tell us otherwise. Youth voter turnout has declined since 1972. Yet youth votes could be a critical tie-breaker. Some political analysts criticize presidential candidates for ignoring the needs and interests of this growing segment. Veronica de La Garza runs the national non-partisan Youth Vote Coalition out of Washington, DC.
AX Garza
If you talk to young people and ask them okay why aren't you voting the biggest reason is well that candidates aren't talking to me and of course we always discuss this the mutual cycle of neglect. where young people are like okay i'm not voting because the candidates are't talking to me and candidates say i'm not talking to them because they're not voting.
NARR
What can be done to get out the youth vote? Money helps. Yale University analyzed get out the vote tactics and found when young people call one another and ask them to vote, it increases turnout by an average of 5 percentage points. Face to face recruitment works even better, boosting turnout by eight and a half points. Researchers said each interaction costs between $12-$20 per vote. This translates into about $6- $10 million dollars for an additional half million votes. In an election that could be decided on a few thousand, half a million votes could go a long way. Laura Strickler, Columbia Radio News