Will Young Voters Actually Vote?

In every election year there seems to be a significant amount of journalists, celebrities, and campaign officials who claim that there would be a record turn-out of youth voters. However, each year they are let down by their small numbers that flock to the voting polls on election day but will this year be different?
It seems that in previous elections, none of the presidential candidates ever reached out or attempted to cater to the youth audience, but I feel it changed once Bill Clinton appeared on MTV to reach out to youth voters in the 1993 presidential elections. There seemed to have been a surge of campaigns aimed at youth voters, and one of its leaders was MTV, fitting for the “MTV Generation.” Celebrities created campaigns to help influence the youth to take action and vote, such as P.Diddy’s “Vote or Die” campaign, or how Chris Farley spoke to a young audience in the film Black Sheep, about his brother running for governor.

Today, our society has advanced its technology and resources since the 90s making it easier to gain youth votes with social network sites and blogs to help connect with them. Even NBC has hired Luke Russert, son of the late Tim Russert, to cover young voters in the 2008 presidential elections. He is 22 years old, which is an intelligent choice on NBC’s part as he is identifiable with our generation and can help influence youth voters.

This year, I have to agree with those who say America will encounter a record turn-out of youth voters not only because they are being approached through facebook, myspace, and various blogs, but because our generation has become more aware of the fact that this election year in particular is significant. We have an African-American running as president on the Democratic side, and a woman as a presidential running-mate on the Republican side. I feel that this election more than any other, has catered to young audiences and will therefore result in a large number of youths going to the voting polls, but we’ll soon find out after the elections.