The youth voter turnout has tripled in some states this year. More young people than ever have taken an interest in politics. However, I’ve heard rumblings of some young voters becoming bored with national election coverage. Is this boredom trend something candidates should address or will the voting numbers still climb higher?
Nearly a year before the first Presidential primary, the 2008 election was headline news. Candidate debates started earlier than ever and some experimented with unique formats, including soliciting questions from You Tube viewers. There has been so much media coverage since the spring of ‘07 that some young voters have already grown tired of the campaigns even as the two presumptive nominees have finally been determined.
After having witnessed eight Democratic and eleven Republican candidates race for the finish, some say it was too much too soon.
For Matt Wall, 23, the amount of candidates in the beginning is why he is disinterested today. He says he will be excited about the election but is a little upset with the way things have turned out. Matt supported the Mitt Romney campaign and has been left without his favorite candidate since February.
“I was really involved in [Romney’s] campaign starting last fall,” Matt said. “It was hard for me to back another candidate when I had been excited about Romney winning.”
Matt says he has decided to join local efforts for his new favorite candidate but will probably wait for the school year to start. He said he isn’t sure why he is putting it off.
Crystal Mason, 22 just graduated college with a degree in journalism. She says she started following the campaign as soon as CNN started covering it.
“I liked the debates at the beginning because there were so many people,” Crystal said. “It was kind of exciting to pick who might end up at the end.”
She said she stopped paying attention to the campaign once summer came, but she plans on getting more informed when the election is closer.
“I just stopped knowing what was going on with the candidates; I tune it out when the news mentions it. But I know it is important and I will start listening more when it is closer to November,” Crystal said.
Aimee Canavan, 22, says she has always been interested in politics. She was one of the campaign managers for Governor Brad Henry’s re-election campaign her junior year of college.
“As soon as the debates started last year, I was there paying attention,” Aimee said. “But now I find myself not listening to news about the election.”
Aimee says she felt bombarded with posters, ads and emails from candidates too early in the game. Although she still wants her favorite candidate to win, Aimee said there isn’t much more she can learn about the candidates.
“I was so excited about the primaries. I even went to a watch party that night,” she said. “At the moment I feel like the news is telling me everything I’ve know about Obama and McCain for a year.”
Are there no new stories about either candidate airing on TV? Well, I personally have seen a lot of new news angles, but maybe that’s because I too was a journalism student. Since there are only two candidates, I feel like they can now make their differences known. McCain and Obama are now telling the public what policies they support and how they vary from their opponent’s policies.
According to Barack Obama’s website, he started his Campaign for Change rallies in the fall of 2007. In a speech given on July 2, 2008, Obama said that right now is the moment to make history.
“We need your service, right now, at this moment – our moment – in history. I’m not going to tell you what your role should be; that’s for you to discover. But I am going to ask you to play your part; ask you to stand up; ask you to put your foot firmly into the current of history. I am asking you to change history’s course,” Obama said.
On John McCain’s website there are online games that backup his political goals and beliefs. This week he also released online ads about energy security. According to his blog, the online ads and games are to give more media coverage to his campaign issues. Both candidates are putting a lot of information online for the younger generation. We might get tired of what newscasters say about the election, so we can just look up information on our own time and get specific questions answered for us.
I think the young voters that are experiencing boredom during the summer, are just in the relaxing, summer kind of mood. Most of the voters I talked to expressed plans of getting more involved and informed once school begins again. Plus, if these voters are anything like me, they may be experiencing impatient, not boredom. I am ready to see history made, and ready to see who will win the voets.
Needless to say, the numbers don’t lie, and I believe this election will have the biggest youth vote yet.
Andrew Wagnon, 22 says he also hopes the youth will still come out to vote in November as well. He says campaigning started really early, but that it could be a good thing. Andrew says he has been following the election coverage because campaigning started early.
“If it all happened so close to November, I’d be more likely to be apathetic,” Andrew said. “I knew this election was going to be important, but all the coverage made it seem like I needed to know what was going on.”