Youth Vote Surges in 2004: The Real Numbers
Young Voters Surpass Previous Records and Match
Significantly Higher Voter Turnout
For Immediate Release:
November 4, 2004
Contact: Devon Bates
401-867-3936
dbates@compact.org
Major media mistakenly reported a disappointing 10% young voter turnout. However, more than half of eligible voters under 30 came out this year, making up 18% of the overall increased voter participation, and a 9.3% increase in youth turnout since the last election.
According to information provided by CIRCLE, this is a sharp rise from 42.3% in 2000 to 51.6% this year, which is still 4% higher than the previous peak of 47.9% in 1992. “Battleground” states saw an even higher youth turnout in 2004 than the rest of the country with 64%. At least 20.9 million young Americans voted, 4.6 million more than in 2000, and that figure is likely to grow even higher as more ballots are counted.
“This means our efforts are beginning to pay off,” said Campus Compact Executive Director Elizabeth Hollander. “Our college presidents advocate for civic learning and democratic participation by college students and here is evidence that our work is showing results.”
This year, Campus Compact partnered with the New Voters Project to mobilize presidents and campuses to encourage student voter participation. Campus Compact's Raise Your Voice campaign supported voter mobilization and education projects. Oklahoma Campus Compact held a Voter Registration Contest that registered almost 4,000 new voters on 22 campuses in 2 days.
“Contrary to what's been said about young folks, this election is another piece of evidence that youth and students are more involved in community and public issues,” said Abby Kiesa, National Student Organizer for Raise Your Voice. “But this is only the beginning of the impact that this generation is having on our country, as students continue to speak up and act on the issues they care about.”
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Thursday, November 04, 2004
Wednesday, November 03, 2004
Rhetoric
This election has brought a lot of good out of the nation. If anything we built new forms of infrustructure for complicated dialectic that never existed before. We had a lot to stand up against, simple fearmongering is an extremely powerufl force and yet we came so close to overcoming it with ideas that, while still simplistic, were at least based on some subset of reality and not on delisional armogedden fantasy.
We are becoming more aware of the whirling murdoch machine and its power to zap idiots into submission but it has also become more aware of us.
I think we need to use these new infrustructures for something beyond politics which is honestly the lowest form of human expresssion. I know that during the leadup to the war and during this election I've reached out to like minded individuals in ways that were never possible before and in turn they have reached out to me.
I believe that this macrocomsic communication can be applied in microcosmic situations that will help improve every day life. How many decisions do we make independantly of the electorate, hundreds daily. The political machine has very little to do with life and everything to do with forcing us into niches and keeping us apart. Let us use the new arms and legs we have grown to make our own lives better and extend our ideas and energy to others in need.
We are becoming more aware of the whirling murdoch machine and its power to zap idiots into submission but it has also become more aware of us.
I think we need to use these new infrustructures for something beyond politics which is honestly the lowest form of human expresssion. I know that during the leadup to the war and during this election I've reached out to like minded individuals in ways that were never possible before and in turn they have reached out to me.
I believe that this macrocomsic communication can be applied in microcosmic situations that will help improve every day life. How many decisions do we make independantly of the electorate, hundreds daily. The political machine has very little to do with life and everything to do with forcing us into niches and keeping us apart. Let us use the new arms and legs we have grown to make our own lives better and extend our ideas and energy to others in need.
Shitty Fucking Day.
1. Kerry lost the election promising 4 years with the man who, at least to me is clearly the worst president of modern history. I can see the next four years being some of the most destructive since the civil war.
2. I lost my cel phone, that stupid little piece of machinery upon which I have become much too dependent. I depend on the feeling of security that my phone brings and the knowledge that in an emergency, I can be reached. If I am going to be late for work, if my uncle has a heart attack, if there is an earth quake, if the University of Washington is attacked by terrorists while my sister or my team mates are there, I can feel that I won't be isolated. I can find out immediately if the people I love are safe. Furthermore, my cel phone has all of the phone numbers of pretty much everyone I know. Without it, I don't have the contact information for anyone who I would have called to address point one tonight with whisky and hunched shoulders in a dark bar somewhere.
3. I am afraid that I have lost faith in the work I do. I don't know if civic responsibility is something that can or should be taught in schools, much less college. I don't think that 19 year olds who don't already believe that it is their duty to become involved their community, much less to serve the people around them, are going to be taught anything new because they are forced to use the skills from an accounting class at a day care center. I have, over the last few weeks, also found myself questioning the morality of Service Learning in any but the most perfectly designed, and exclusively fictional settings. I don't what moral value, if any can be found in reflection, a process in which participants find the "value" of service, not in the act of service itself, not even in the positive impact the service has, but in the emotional and intellectual masturbation that accompanies it.
Furthermore, I don't even know if I believe the Service Learning and Civic Engagement dogma that we recite again, and again, and again. I have worked to become involved in my community all of my life, as a dumb-fuck boy scout planting trees and collecting food, as a dip-shit college student involved in student groups, as a Nevadan VISTA trying to establish a program for brilliant punk kids to do something positive. I have voted in every single election of my life. Still, I don't know that I ever felt myself a part of a community more extensive than my Americorps team (which disperses in 9 months), or the group of students at my college who came to my dorm’s floor to drink (which dispersed years ago). I certainly don't feel any sense of our country as a community, or city as a community, or neighborhood as a community, or the people who ride the 271 every morning a community. I can't imagine what, short of running for office would give me any feeling that I am any legitimate part of American Democracy, 'cause those "I voted" stickers ain't fuckin' cuttin it.
If actively trying to be involved for 15 years doesn't give me a sense of Civic Engagement how, then, is our work supposed to be Dewey's "midwife of Democracy" for this, or any generation? Or is something just wrong with me?
4. Finally, on my way home, I walked in to a rose bush. I just brushed by it lightly, but a thorn caught me and tore a hole in one of the 5 pairs of pants that I own. They were the olive green ones Dianna bought for me. Now I have three pairs of black cords, one pair of blue cords and nothing else. Fucking bush. I fucking hate that bush. Fuck that fucking bush.
2. I lost my cel phone, that stupid little piece of machinery upon which I have become much too dependent. I depend on the feeling of security that my phone brings and the knowledge that in an emergency, I can be reached. If I am going to be late for work, if my uncle has a heart attack, if there is an earth quake, if the University of Washington is attacked by terrorists while my sister or my team mates are there, I can feel that I won't be isolated. I can find out immediately if the people I love are safe. Furthermore, my cel phone has all of the phone numbers of pretty much everyone I know. Without it, I don't have the contact information for anyone who I would have called to address point one tonight with whisky and hunched shoulders in a dark bar somewhere.
3. I am afraid that I have lost faith in the work I do. I don't know if civic responsibility is something that can or should be taught in schools, much less college. I don't think that 19 year olds who don't already believe that it is their duty to become involved their community, much less to serve the people around them, are going to be taught anything new because they are forced to use the skills from an accounting class at a day care center. I have, over the last few weeks, also found myself questioning the morality of Service Learning in any but the most perfectly designed, and exclusively fictional settings. I don't what moral value, if any can be found in reflection, a process in which participants find the "value" of service, not in the act of service itself, not even in the positive impact the service has, but in the emotional and intellectual masturbation that accompanies it.
Furthermore, I don't even know if I believe the Service Learning and Civic Engagement dogma that we recite again, and again, and again. I have worked to become involved in my community all of my life, as a dumb-fuck boy scout planting trees and collecting food, as a dip-shit college student involved in student groups, as a Nevadan VISTA trying to establish a program for brilliant punk kids to do something positive. I have voted in every single election of my life. Still, I don't know that I ever felt myself a part of a community more extensive than my Americorps team (which disperses in 9 months), or the group of students at my college who came to my dorm’s floor to drink (which dispersed years ago). I certainly don't feel any sense of our country as a community, or city as a community, or neighborhood as a community, or the people who ride the 271 every morning a community. I can't imagine what, short of running for office would give me any feeling that I am any legitimate part of American Democracy, 'cause those "I voted" stickers ain't fuckin' cuttin it.
If actively trying to be involved for 15 years doesn't give me a sense of Civic Engagement how, then, is our work supposed to be Dewey's "midwife of Democracy" for this, or any generation? Or is something just wrong with me?
4. Finally, on my way home, I walked in to a rose bush. I just brushed by it lightly, but a thorn caught me and tore a hole in one of the 5 pairs of pants that I own. They were the olive green ones Dianna bought for me. Now I have three pairs of black cords, one pair of blue cords and nothing else. Fucking bush. I fucking hate that bush. Fuck that fucking bush.
Hey Ben. Shit is fucking shitty.
Ben,Today is a really shitty day.
The loss of what so many called the "most important election of our lifetime" hurts. The damage, both at home and abroad that GWB and his republican houses of congress will do is something I don't want to even contemplate right now.
After 9-11 the overtly divisive "with us or against us" language surfaced. It was very lonely. After the patriot act was passed withstrong congressional support, it was very lonely. When the war with Iraq began, and enjoyed the support of 70 % of the American population, it was very lonely.
In the last few hours, I have received a stream of sad emails from organizations who were fighting to win this election. Kerry's email to his followers, with his tragic eloquence nearly made me cry. In his, "man shit sucks and it is a sad day" mass email today, Howard Dean, reminded the army of deflated supporters that yesterday more people voted against George W Bush than any sitting president in American History. The number of people who wanted him out of office is impossible to fathom. The last four years have played host to a series of profound disappointments and moments of heart-wrenching depression. Today is just another on a list of dates on my calender sharpied black, but for the first time in four years, I don't feel lonely.
"we are only just beginning and hearts begin to fly."
The loss of what so many called the "most important election of our lifetime" hurts. The damage, both at home and abroad that GWB and his republican houses of congress will do is something I don't want to even contemplate right now.
After 9-11 the overtly divisive "with us or against us" language surfaced. It was very lonely. After the patriot act was passed withstrong congressional support, it was very lonely. When the war with Iraq began, and enjoyed the support of 70 % of the American population, it was very lonely.
In the last few hours, I have received a stream of sad emails from organizations who were fighting to win this election. Kerry's email to his followers, with his tragic eloquence nearly made me cry. In his, "man shit sucks and it is a sad day" mass email today, Howard Dean, reminded the army of deflated supporters that yesterday more people voted against George W Bush than any sitting president in American History. The number of people who wanted him out of office is impossible to fathom. The last four years have played host to a series of profound disappointments and moments of heart-wrenching depression. Today is just another on a list of dates on my calender sharpied black, but for the first time in four years, I don't feel lonely.
"we are only just beginning and hearts begin to fly."
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