Youth movement : Area’s young voters prepare for Super Tuesday impact
Posted on Monday, February 4, 2008
The days leading up to the state’s presidential primary were busy for young people in Fayetteville as they canvassed neighborhoods, attended rallies and watch parties and held up signs at intersections.
Some still teetered on who to vote for, while others spent the past few days trying to raise support on their candidate’s behalf. For an election that is predicted to bring record numbers of young voters to the polls, the energy before the primaries is proof positive.
Cole Bochenfeld was one of about 50 University of Arkansas students who gathered at the Arkansas Union on Thursday night to watch Barack Obama in the Democratic debate.
Bochenfeld, a senior majoring in political science and Middle Eastern studies, said the group of Obama supporters started organizing the watch party just five days earlier by putting up fliers around campus and posting the event on Facebook. com. Bochenfeld said he was surprised by the turnout considering the weather had brought more than an inch of snow throughout the day.
“ It says a lot that we can still get 50 people in here, ” he said. “ It’s so hard to get people to campus at night to do anything. ”
The ability to attract members of the younger generation is his candidate’s greatest strength, Bochenfeld said.
“ Obama doesn’t represent the usual politics, ” he said. “ Young people are kind of jaded by the political system, and he promises to bring a different type of politics to Washington. ”
A small group of students sprawled out on the floor nearby reiterated Bochenfeld’s statements, using markers to paint “ Obama represents change” on big sheets of white poster board.
“ The media is always saying young people don’t vote because they don’t care, ” Bochenfeld said. “ They do care. They’re very much involved, and they’re watching. ”
He said the war in Iraq is especially important to young people.
“ So many of us have friends and classmates over there, ” he said. “ It’s a more personal issue for us. ”
Adam Glasier, a University of Arkansas sophomore from Little Rock, reluctantly called off a watch party at the Clinton House Museum as the weather reports became direr Thursday afternoon.
“ I hate to do this because it’s our last chance to get together before Tuesday, ” he said.
Glasier is an organizer of the Students for Hillary, University of Arkansas chapter, on Facebook. com. He became interested in the campaign last summer when he interned at the state’s Democratic Party headquarters in Little Rock.
Embarking on his first time as an eligible voter in what would be a historical presidential primary, Glasier initially chose to support Obama.
“ I liked his ideals, ” he said. “ But then when he started speaking out, he showed his inexperience on foreign policy issues. ”
Glasier said he felt more inspired by what Clinton had to say.
“ She has a more realistic approach, ” he said. “ I feel like Hillary can get stuff done. ”
He particularly liked Clinton’s health care plan. After his parents divorced about five years ago, he said, his mom was diagnosed with breast cancer.
“ She couldn’t get health insurance for years, ” he said. “ She had to go back to school and get a job just to get health insurance.
“ I don’t think it’s fair there are so many people out there without health care coverage, and Hillary’s plan is probably the best one out there. ”
Glasier said most of his friends either claim to be Republicans or aren’t much interested in politics at all.
He has taken it upon himself to urge them to get involved, regardless of the party affiliation they choose.
He even went with some of his friends to register to vote, although he doubts they will vote in the primary.
“ I have a feeling that most of them will vote in November, ” he said, “ but I don’t see them voting in the primary. ”
Even so, on Friday afternoon, Washington County Clerk Karen Combs Pritchard said the turnout for early voting was bigger than she anticipated.
There wasn’t really a surge in voter registration, she said, and not an unusual amount of absentee-ballot applications.
“ That’s why I’m shocked at the turnout we’re having, ” she said.
The turnout of young voters has increased significantly in the 2008 primary compared to election years 2004 and 2000.
According to the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, youth voter turnout in Florida’s primary tripled over 2000, with 13 percent of eligible citizens younger than 30 participating in the election on Jan. 29
In the New Hampshire, 43 percent of citizens 18 to 29 years old participated in the primary, compared to 18 percent in 2004.
Charlie Alison, managing editor of University Relations at the UA, was in New Hampshire for the two weeks leading up to the primary.
“ The number of 20- and 30-somethings coming out to support the candidates was unbelievable, ” Alison said.
Young people are encouraged by the candidates and their promises of change, he said.
Andrea Mutzhaus, a 29-yearold single mother working on a degree in elementary education, said Republican candidate Ron Paul offers the prospect of something different.
“ I believe Ron Paul to be the only candidate standing before us who talks common sense about current issues facing our nation and the only candidate that truly speaks of real change, ” she said.
As a young person, Mutzhaus said, she is concerned about the economy. Paul has the knowledge and ideas to help bring the country out of the financial crisis, she said.
“ He understands that Social Security cannot be saved, more Band-Aids cannot be placed on the system, and that as young people we should have the right to opt out of a program that will never benefit us, ” she said.
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