More Young Voters Say They Will 'Definitely' Vote This Year Than Prior Elections

[appalachiablue]

Source: Forbes

By Alison Durkee.

63% of Americans age 18-29 say they will “definitely be voting” in the November election, a new Harvard Youth Poll found, marking a substantial increase from 2016 and 2018 and putting youth turnout in November on track to match or exceed the 2008 election. The percentage of young Americans who plan to vote far exceeds the 47% who said they definitely planned to vote ahead of the 2016 election, 40% who planned to vote in 2018 and 48% who planned to vote in 2012.

The number of respondents age 18-24 who said they definitely planned to vote in 2020 (62%) was nearly identical to the poll's findings in 2008 (63%), which turned out to be a watershed year for voter turnout that resulted in Barack Obama’s first term and Democratic control of the Senate and House.

The findings also echo the favorability Obama had in the 2008 poll, when 59% of young voters favored him; 60% of young voters in this year's poll favor Joe Biden. Enthusiasm is far higher for Donald Trump among his supporters, however: 44% of Trump voters are “very enthusiastic” about voting for him, as compared with only 30% of Biden voters about their candidate.

Youth voters have traditionally had low turnout—the 48.4% of 18-29 year olds who turned out in 2008 marked the highest percentage since 1984—but numbers have more recently been slightly increasing: 45% of 18-29 year old voted in 2012, 20% in 2014, 46.1% in 2016 and 36% in 2018...

Read more: https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2020/09/21/more-young-voters-say-they-will-definitely-vote-this-year-than-prior-elections/#1ef5f15556f1

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Read More, https://iop.harvard.edu/about/newsletter-press-release/harvard-youth-poll-election-2020

[groundloop]

1. Good news. Next thing is we need to get them voting in mid-terms as well.

[beachbumbob]

2. IF this demographics gets invovled and vote, trump and the GOP going forward are done for

[murielm99]

3. I will believe it when I see it.

[texasfiddler]

4. I am more excited about the shift in older voters. I agree. I will believe it when I see it

[LisaM]

5. Same here.

I hope for the best, but at this point, I'm just a cynic. People shouldn't have to be motivated (positively or negatively) to vote. They just need to vote.

[BumRushDaShow]

6. Exactly

They talk a good game but probably will spend more time Snapchatting and Instagramming about it than actually doing it.

[StClone]

8. As someone who spends much time with many 18-22 years-olds

They aren't even talking a good game this election. I still get "both sides are alike" or "I'm an independent." We'll see. I am hoping, but am not too bond to believe a higher turnout of the young.

[BumRushDaShow]

9. I have a number of nieces and nephews in that 18 - 40 age group

and it is all dependent on the household they grew up in. Both my sisters and I grew up with a mother who NEVER missed an election since he became eligible to vote in 1951 and it was something that was a "given" for us. As she aged, we were expected to deliver her to the polling place and we gladly did.

Even when we were away from home at college, we went through the whole process of requesting absentee ballots for every election (primary and general) - which back in the '70s/'80s were NOT "online" -I think we had to call the city to mail us an application for an absentee ballot and then when we got that, we would fill that out, mail it back, the city elections officials verified/validated it, then they mailed the ballot at least 30 days prior to the election and it had to be returned before the actual election day.

My sisters' kids are in households where voting is also a "given". My brothers-in-law have siblings whose households are not as binding to that.

The only thing that might mitigate this "Vote? Meh." mentality this year is the fact that many of them were actually out in the streets for months doing BLM protests. So if anything, they at least got exposed to an enhanced level of "political involvement" that I would hope translates into a next step of actually voting.

[StClone]

10. My Kids grew up in one of those households!

I grew up in a big family (11 kids) and I am one of two Democrats left.

My daughter worked for a Famous Dem. Senator. My two sons are biting at the bit to get out and vote in person. All are big donors-this time more than ever! Good for your family too! Thanks for the reply!

[BumRushDaShow]

11. Excellent!

I remember when one of my nieces was about 3 months old and I had gone with my sis and the baby to her polling station (in the 'burbs - I had already voted at my location in the city but wanted to see what their polling site looked like) and from that time on, she always went with my sis or her daddy "into the booth" (my BIL was their local "Committee person" and also a Judge of Elections).

[demosincebirth]

13. That's riight, it depends on the household they were brought up in.

[BumRushDaShow]

14. I think it really does make a difference

If parents never go vote and/or disparage the whole concept by insisting "it doesn't make a difference" or "politicians are all the same", etc, and there is no other "outside influence" like another family member or coach or friends or even the schools themselves to offer a different viewpoint, then it's natural that the child will grow up doing the same.

I remember as a kid when they would set up the voting machines in our school (which hosted a voting precinct) and would bring the kids to the gym where they put them the day before the election, and they would show us how they worked, and would do a quick civics lesson about the importance of the vote. And of course schools themselves (at least high schools) usually had their own "elections" for class President and Vice President, etc., so there was an analogous type of "campaigning" going on.

But if you have so many who taught to believe that voting is "frivolous" when they are young, then that generation will only discover the error of their ways as they age and the circumstances they face in those later years have made their lives difficult, where changes could have been made had they voted years before. And only then do they finally "get it" (well, at least some of them because others will continue to pass on the "voting doesn't matter" mantra to the next generation).

[jorgevlorgan]

7. About that "enthusiasm gap"

I guess if I was polled I might not say I am quite "enthusiastic" about voting for Joe Biden. But I will say I am enthusiastic about voting against Trump and will walk over broken glass and through fires to do so. And I am almost certain there are millions of Biden voters/ Donors/ Volunteers, who feel the same way as me. Much fewer similar voters for Trump, I think.

"Enthusiasm gap" is not as meaningful if one of the candidates is far more hated than the other.

On edit: I am, however VERY enthusiastic about voting for Harris

[onetexan]

12. 15 million more became eligible to vote - WELCOME YOUNG PEOPLE!! Vote BLUE!!