One Day Training - How to Get Out the Youth Vote. Washington, DC. June 21

Campus Progress' upcoming campaign training event, How to Win in 2010: Mobilizing Young Voters taking place on June 21st at the Center for American Progress.

This nonpartisan day of trainings, which is being co-sponsored by Rock the Vote, the George Washington University Graduate School of Political Management, and the American University Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies, will focus on equipping campaign staff, candidates and members of the media with tools to help them effectively engage, utilize, and turn out young voters.

Great speakers include Steve Hildebrand (former Obama for America Deputy Campaign Manager), Karen Hicks, and trainers from Rock the Vote, PEW, the Fair Elections Legal Network, and many other organizations.

The training day is free and limited travel and housing scholarships are also available.

Additional info & registration is here.

If it had been up to 18 - 29 year olds ...

This map comes from Future Majority's website. Future Majority researched and commissioned it after the November 2008 presidential election.

Future Majority also has maps of the electoral vote from 2004, and 20 year trends in youth partisan voting.

Best Picture Of 2008 Electorate To Date

It's taken about a year, but thanks to new Census numbers and to Project Vote, we now have the most accurate picture of who voted, who didn't vote, and how the voting patterns compare to previous elections.

That statement was taken from the opening paragraph of this interesting article by Marc Ambinder, published in The Atlantic on November 23rd.

The article contains a lot of interesting facts pertaining to the 2008 presidential election, such as:

* Women turned out at a higher rate than men.

* Non-whites made up more than 90% of the increase in the total number of voters.

* Latino women and women under thirty grew by 6% and Asian women saw their participation rates grow by 13 points.

* Young black women voted at the highest rate among voters under 30 -- and the only turnout rate that exceed the voting rates by white people of any age.

* For the first time in recorded memory, voting rates for those under 30 increased; voting rates for those over 30 did not.

* Young voter turnout has increased at a rate of about 30% per general election since 2000. Indeed, the rate of increase was higher from 2000 to 2004 than from 2004 to 2008.

For great election and voting related stories check out theHeadCount blog. If you liked this blog post, then check out this recent HeadCount post "The Stats Are In: You Voted."

Poll: Young People Back Obama, Disapprove of His Major Policies

An excerpt from a post written by Ari Mebler and published on The Nation's blog today:

A new Harvard poll finds that President Obama is holding on to his strongest supporters, voters under 30, though they overwhelmingly oppose sending more troops to Afghanistan.

About 58 percent of young voters approve of Obama's job performance, while his approval among all voters recently dipped below 50 percent for the first time. About 66 percent of young voters oppose a build-up in Afghanistan, though this survey was in the field before the President's West Point speech.

In fact, the most striking part of the new poll is how young voters disapprove of Obama on issues across the board, yet still support his overall job performance. A briefing from Harvard's Institute of Politics (IOP) crunches the numbers:

The IOP's fall poll indicates 18-29 year-olds are now in line with the general population: a majority of young adults approve of [Obama] generally but disapprove of his handling of major issues asked about in the poll... A majority of 18-29 year-olds also disapprove of his handling of every major issue asked about:

Afghanistan (55% disapprove, 41% approve)
health care (52% disapprove, 44% approve)
the economy (52% disapprove, 44% approve)
Iran (53% disapprove, 42% approve)
and the federal budget deficit (58% disapprove, 38% approve)

A detailed report on the poll’s findings is available on Harvard’s Institute of Politics (IOP) (located at the John F. Kennedy School of Government) homepage at www.iop.harvard.edu.

California Governor Signs Law to Boost Young Voter Participation

Photo: HeadCount voter registration volunteers posing for a photos with Jack Johnson - Jack Johnson 2008 Tour - Mansfield MA show, August 2008.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed a bill into law that permits 17 year old California residents to register to vote before their 18th birthday. The 17 year old will then be able to vote in an election beginning on the day that they turn 18 years old.

This process is called "pre-registration." California is the 8th state, now, that permits its residents to register to vote at either 16 or 17 years old. For example, over the summer North Carolina passed a law permitting its residents to register to vote when the residents turn 16 years old.

According to this report, this will facilitate youth registration at two highly convenient locations – in school and at the motor vehicles department when applying for a driver's license. Currently, the majority of voters register when conducting business at motor vehicle departments, and this change will extend that option to younger people as well. And in doing so it will link in young people's minds the rite of passage of getting a driver's license with that of registering to vote.

When signed by the governor, the state will join Hawaii and Florida in allowing for pre-registration. But in true North Carolina, pro-voter style they are coupling this reform with other important provisions – requiring schools to include voter registration information in the 10th grade civics curriculum, encouraging school boards to “adopt policies to promote voter registration,” and including schools in the yearly voter registration drives conducted by local boards of election.

California students were the most persuasive advocates for pre-registration. The students were joined by organizations including the New America Foundation, AARP, The League of Women Voters and FairVote.

MA may be the next state to pass such a law. Representative Ellen Story, a member of the MA House leadership, has put this as her top agenda item. She bluntly stated at a press conference that "[w]e are looking for good bills to pass that don’t cost anything because we don’t have any money.”

Works for me!