Attention Baby Boomers, Hollywood Execs and DC Insiders…a Friendly Message from Gen X and the Millennials “Go F#$! Yourself"

Mike,
Your link leads to a Youth Vote site. Isn't that like a Republican sending you to the Heritage Foundation?

here's the paragraph that you sourced:
-------------“Young voters are a potential powerhouse in the 2008 elections,” said Kat Barr, research director with Rock the Vote. “This poll is yet another indicator that candidates who want to win in 2008 must court this large and increasingly active group of voters.” After declining nearly continuously for three decades, 18-29-year-olds’ voter turnout has increased in the past two major elections. In 2004, 4.3 million more voters under 30 cast ballots than had in 2000 – the total 18-29-year-old vote, 20.1 million, rivaled in size the much sought-after over-65 vote (23 million). Youth turnout also increased in 2006, by 1.9 million over 2002 levels.------------------

20 million vs 23 million sounds like a lost. But, that whole paragraph is deceptive.

To even give this credit, one would have to know what the numbers are for the Boomers (45-65) and the Xers (30-45).
I noticed that the senior vote was put at 65 instead of 55 plus which is where the AARP puts it and aims their turnout effort. I'm willing to bet that it swallows that number based on the fact that due to death- over 65 voters is not going to be that big compared to 18-29 years olds walking around. We probably don't have many more than 23 million over 65 people in the US..
How about comparing the rate of over 65 voters to those 18-29?

Sorry Charlie, if you compare the turnout based on population of the Seniors, Boomers Xers and 18-29, that last group would be last or second to last (I'm an Xer and can believe we may be last).

The good news is that you're actually starting vote in some measurable numbers. The bad news is that statistically, you're still not worth the big investment.

If you had read any other post on this blog before you, including the one immediately preceding this one (the one titled "Be Back Saturday"), you would know that I was on deadline to finish the manuscript of a book I'm writing. I shouldn't even have commented at all but I felt strongly that those comments shouldn't stand unanswered.

For information backing up the press release from Rock the Vote, you can go and download the 2006 and 2004 fact sheets from CIRCLE (Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement), which is associated with Pew. The link will take you directly to all of their youth voting fact sheets.

If you want more, check out Young Voter Strategies.

Now here's the thin. YVS and CIRCLE are pretty much the ONLY game in town when it comes to rigorously following and analyzing the youth vote. They brief candidates and campaigns, and every youth organizer I know relies on their information, as does the media.

Pollsters rarely follow the demographic exclusively, because they are hard and expensive to poll. For more on this, see this post that I wrote on the subject.

Here's a slide from a presentation by the Harvard Institute of Politics that actually states that more 18-29 year olds voted in 2004 than did those over 65:

For a good summary of information about Millennials and political involvement, you can also check out this report by the New Politics Institute.

To address ((yet again) the poster's point that Millennials are statistically insignificant, I would refer them to this (well sourced) document:

Waiting in the wings, however, are more than 35 million more “Millennial Generation” youth between the ages of 9-17 years who will become potential voters over the next several years.2

In 2008, Millennial citizens 18-31 years of age will be nearly 50 million strong.3

By the time this entire cohort reaches voting age, Millennials will number approximately 82 million citizens4 out of an adult citizen population of just over 225 million,5 or more than 36 percent.

Therefore, the Millennial Generation is on track to be one-third of the U.S. electorate by 2015.

That is not statisitically insignificant, and you can just ask Jon Tester, Jim Webb, Joe Courtney and a whole bunch of other democrats who rode a wave of increased youth support to victory in 2006.

Now that I've provided all of this backup information, I would like to point out that neither you nor the other poster have provided one shred of evidence to back up your claims. All you've done is try to cast doubt and aspersions on mine. So now it's your turn. Put up or shut up.