Posted by BEN BEAUMONT – Our student panelists on Monday appear to have been correct in predicting large youth support for Senator Barack Obama. An article on the Chronicle of Higher Education Web site today points to Obama’s huge support from voters ages 18 to 29, particularly among college students. Here’s an excerpt from the article:
Young voters overwhelmingly favored Mr. Obama in Tuesday’s election, including in key battleground states such as North Carolina, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, according to national exit polls.
Over all, 68 percent of voters ages 18 to 29 cast their ballots for the Democrat, versus 30 percent who supported John McCain. That is by far the greatest share of the youth vote that any presidential candidate has received since exit polls began reporting results by age categories, in 1976, according to the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, at Tufts University.
Also, discussed by the Clinton School student panel, the Obama campaign used unprecedented means to reach young voters.
The Obama campaign aggressively courted student supporters, including through online networking sites, like Facebook, and by building grass-roots support networks on campuses across the country.
In a poll of nearly 25,000 undergraduates conducted last month by CBS News, UWIRE, and The Chronicle in four battleground states, Mr. Obama enjoyed a 2-to-1 edge in support over his Republican opponent, Mr. McCain, a U.S. senator from Arizona. Seventy-eight percent of the poll respondents who were registered to vote thought that the Democrat cared about people like them, and about two-thirds said that Mr. Obama was someone they could relate to.
CLICK HERE for the full article.