Millennials and the vote: Adam Parkhomenko tweet of Jacob Soboroff report from Orange County CA

[octoberlib]

16. Mid-term turnout among 18 to 29 year olds has always been low

They say elections are decided by those who show up to vote.There are many inequalities that affect turnout and therefore shift voting power from some groups and to others. Age is one of the strongest of these factors, and it has been since we’ve been able to measure it well. There have been some changes over time, but the basic result, that the young vote less than the old and that turnout climbs with each additional year of life, is one of the most robust findings in political science.



There are many reasons why the young are less likely to vote. These include level of political interest, overcoming the initial barrier of registration to vote, a busy life of many changes, geographic mobility and simply not yet having developed the habit of voting. Some of these factors can be influenced by campaigns and efforts at mobilization. The increase in turnout after 2000 in presidential elections shows that some change can occur. The lack of substantial change in midterm turnout raises doubts as to how much mobilization can be effective in 2018.

After posting this a number of comments asked about change over time, say the last 50 years. I mentioned in the post that this pattern of low turnout among the young and high among the old has been with us since we’ve been able to measure it(1972).

https://medium.com/@PollsAndVotes/age-and-voter-turnout-52962b0884ef