Officials Say Young People Coming Out In Droves Registering To Vote

ABINGDON, Va. – As election officials gear up for the 2008 presidential election just five weeks away, they’re seeing a remarkable trend: Young people, particularly women under 25, are coming out in droves to register to vote.

“The State Board of Elections tells us we’re going to have more voters than we’ve ever had before,” said Washington County Voter Registrar Mary Ann Compton. “Everybody’s just interested in voting in this election.”

As of Sept. 15, Compton said more than 284,000 new voters had registered statewide, and more than 42 percent of them are younger than 25.

“This is the people that do not vote,” said Compton. “In the past, it’s been the older people that do all the voting.”

She said another 20 percent of the new voters are between the ages of 25 and 34. Reasons for the high registration among younger people are the number of ways to register, plus the efforts of groups like Rock the Vote, which uses pop culture and technology to bring out the youth vote.

With local musicians, Virginia Highlands Community College hosted a Rock the Vote registration drive on Tuesday, and Abingdon High School students came with their teachers to learn about the political process and get registered.

“I really think that they see the country in trouble, and this is the first time both sides don’t have an incumbent candidate, so they feel they can change the direction of the country,” said Kim Morton, career planning coordinator for the college, about the interest in registering to vote.

Teachers there from Abingdon High said their students are most concerned about the war in Iraq, the economy, the price of gas and the affordability of college. When asked, several students said they’re concerned about issues that will affect their future.

“I think the main thing that’s drawing them [young people] here is the economy,” said Rick Umbarger, 34, a first-year student at VHCC. “Are we going to spend four years, six years or more only to get a better job and then not have a job waiting for us because the economy’s that bad?”

Brad White, a 21-year-old volunteer for the Barack Obama campaign, said fellow volunteers as young as 13 are working the phones to bring voters to their side, even though they are too young to vote.

“It seems to me that from time to time, candidates come along that do capture the interest and the imagination of the public, and particularly they seem to capture the interest of young people,” said Barbara Cockrell, director of operations for the Virginia State Board of Elections, as she sorted voter registration applications.

“That certainly happened in 1960 with the [John F.] Kennedy campaign and 1980 with the [Ronald] Reagan campaign, so perhaps that’s what’s happening now,” she said on Monday.

She said the voter registration increase this year is on track to be comparable to what it was in the years that Reagan ran.

A lot of young people who were asked their opinions at the Rock the Vote event on Tuesday said they still aren’t sure who will get their votes.

“I’m pretty excited about it because I get to vote for the first time,” said Denise Gobble, an Abingdon High School senior who will turn 18 on Oct. 1. “I’m still deciding.”

“I don’t know yet,” said Jarrod Poston, 21, a student at East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, when asked which candidate he supports.

Meanwhile, predictions abound that Virginians, young people and undecided voters will decide this year’s presidential election.

Among those who voted in a mock election at the event, 55 percent selected Barack Obama for president and 45 percent selected John McCain. There were strong opinions on both sides.

“I just think it would be nice to have something different. I think it would be good to have change,” said Katie Nichols, an 18-year-old Abingdon High School senior who supports Obama.

As a future teacher, Nichols’ main issue is education; she wants a president who will change the federal No Child Left Behind program to emphasize helping the brightest students excel.

“I think it’s just kind of dumbing down the people who have more potential to learn and putting them on the level of the kids who are not as bright,” Nichols said of the current educational policies. “We’re taking the same tests as mentally challenged kids … and as long as we pass those, that’s all the teachers care about.”

On the other side, 17-year-old Abingdon High senior Steven Farley will not turn 18 in time to vote, but he’s participating in the process in another way: he recently joined the National Guard and he supports McCain because he says the United States should finish what it started in Iraq.

“Some people joined [the Guard] because they want to go to Iraq. I’ll go over there if I have to,” Farley said.

He added that a lot of his friends have also joined the Guard, and most of those he knows who are his own age also support McCain.

“Obama wants to pull out, and everything that we’ve done … it would all be for nothing,” Farley said. “I think if we stay in there and finish what we started, I think we can win it and have it turn out for the best.”

Meanwhile, Compton, the voter registrar, said her office is gearing up with more volunteers and voting machines in anticipation of the largest voter turnout in history on Nov. 4.

“We’re real excited about it, and we’re just doing our best to do everything we can so that people won’t have to wait when they go to vote this November,” she said. “That’s our main concern, just to be ready for all the voters that are going to show up.”

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