Youth vote in the United States
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The youth vote in the United States is the cohort of 18- to 24-year-olds as a voting demographic. Many
policy areas specifically affect the youth of the United States, such as education issues and the juvenile justice
system. The general trend in voter turnout for American elections has been decreasing for all age groups, but
"young people's participation has taken the biggest nosedive. This low youth turnout is part of the
generational trend of voting activity. Young people have the lowest turnout, though as the individual ages,
turnout increases to a peak at the age of 50 and then falls again. Ever since 18-year-olds were given the right
to vote in 1972, youth have been under represented at the polls. In 1976, one of the first elections in which 18-
year-olds were able to vote, 18-24 year-olds made up 18 percent of all eligible voters in America, but only 13
percent actually voted - an under-representation of one-third. In the next election in 1978, youth were under
represented by 50 percent. "Seven out of ten young people...did not vote in the 1996 presidential election... 20
percent below the general turnout" In 1998, out of the 13 percent of eligible youth voters in America, only five
percent voted. During the competitive presidential race of 2000, 36 percent of youth turned out to vote and in
2004, the "banner year in the history of youth voting." 47 percent of the American youth voted. Recently, in the
2008 U.S. presidential election, the number of youth voters tripled and even quadrupled in some states
compared to the 2004 elections. 161 in 2008, Barack Obama spoke about the contributions of young people to his
election campaign outside of just voter turnout
