More Young People Registering to Vote (but only 18m of 48m under 30's vote

[papau]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35540-2004Sep20.html

More Young People Registering to Vote

By MARTHA IRVINE The Associated Press
Monday, September 20, 2004; 12:20 PM

Voter registration drives aimed at young people are turning 18- to 24-year-olds into an important variable in the presidential election, especially in decisive battleground states such as Michigan - where nearly 100,000 young people have registered in recent months - and Wisconsin, where the numbers are even higher.

They are the nation's newest swing voters, with polls showing their support for the major candidates has vacillated in recent months. A Harvard University poll found that, in a five-month period, 19 percent of young potential voters changed their minds about whom they'd support.

"It's a big population of fluid voters, and they're largely unknown," says Ivan Frishberg, outreach and communications coordinator for the nonprofit New Voters Project, which has registered tens of thousands of young people across the country.

Take Kristin Wilson, a 23-year-old in Perrysburg, Ohio, and her 18-year-old sister, Kellyn, a freshman at Ohio State University. Both have registered to vote, but neither identifies as Republican or Democrat and both are taking their time deciding who to vote for.

"I think people underestimate people our age," Kellyn says. "And they shouldn't."

Traditionally, young voters have been among the least likely Americans to vote. Exit polls from the 2000 election found that, of 48 million potential voters younger than 30, only about 18 million of them went to the polls. And in this year's Democratic primaries, widespread support on college campuses did not translate into victories for candidate Howard Dean. <snip>