Slightly Super Tuesday: Youth Vote Triples in Texas, Almost Doubles in Ohio

I have to say, this is getting exhausting, covering the primary, but last night brought more good news for youth vote advocates and young people fighting for their voice to be heard.

According to CIRCLE, the youth vote tripled in Texas yesterday, with over 620,000 young people going to the polls, despite reports that many young people experienced difficulties in casting their ballots. Youth turnout in the Lonestar state hit 17%, up from 6% in 2000, and the youth share of the electorate was 15%, up from 9% in 2000.

In Ohio, almost 480,000 young voters went to the polls - nearly double the amount from 2000. The Ohio youth turnout rate was 25%, up from 15% in 2000 and confirming my suspicion that Ohio would have a higher than average turnout rate. The youth share of the Ohio electorate was 15%, up from 11% in 2000.

In both states young voters participated in the Democratic primary over the GOP primary at a rate of 2.6 to 1, continuing the trend set in almost every other contest thus far (Oklahoma and Utah being the exceptions).

As in most of the previous contests, young voters overwhelmingly chose Sen. Obama over Senator Clinton. In Ohio he captured the youth vote 61 - 35 percent. In Texas he won by a slimmer 58 - 42 percent.

Despite these wins, Clinton seems to have recaptured what little base she has among youth - non college, low income, and young Latinos. In each category Clinton erased the gains made by Senator Obama during the Potomac Primaries just a few weeks back and won those demographics.

Less data is available for Vermont and Rhode Island (CIRCLE was not able to attain the necessary data to crunch the numbers), but here's what we know from the CNN exit polls. In Rhode Island, young voters made up 13% of the electorate - up from 8% in 2004 - and Sen. Obama capture the youth vote 53 - 47 percent. In Vermont, young voters were 11% of the electorate, a slight increase over their 10% share in 2004. As in other states, they chose Obama 64 - 31%.

Still no nominee, but the surge in youth participation continues, particularly in the two states where the candidates expended the most effort to get out the vote, and young voters continue to choose Democrats over Republicans by more than 2 - 1. Good news for November, whoever the nominee will be.