John A. Farrell

Barack Obama, Pollsters, and the Youth Vote

September 18, 2008 RSS Feed Print

One thing has struck me when I listen to pollsters talk about the 2008 election: They sound far more certain about their ability to gauge racism and ageism in the electorate than they are about their ability to correctly gauge how young people will vote.

It's those durn' newfangled cellphones the youngsters got glued to their ears, dagnabbit. Why some of them don't even have a telephone at home—just their portable smartituneyberries!

Anyhow, the polling wizards sound downright humbled when they talk about the challenge of determining how and how many young folks will vote.

Our pal Carl Cannon has written an intriguing piece about the youth vote here, in which he suggests that Barack Obama's strength in the polls is consistently underestimated.

Tags:
voters,
presidential election 2008,
young voters,
Barack Obama,
polls

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i think that young people should always vote because our vote does count so we should take advantage of it

JUILIUS JONES of OH 10:34AM November 06, 2008

There are over 28 million registered voters aged 18-24 and more than 70% are either democrat and/or an Obama supporter. An interesting stat, all they would have to do is show up at a 56% improvement in turnout from 2004 and Obama wins with over 300 electoral votes. If its anywhere near the turnout in the primaries, then he wins in a landslide. The polls underestimate his lead. The youth are almost never polled due to exclusive cell-phone use and thin voting history. The youth will decide this election in Obama's favor, no doubt.

Alan of CA 3:57AM September 30, 2008

On Obama, Inc.'s use of "action alerts," using money to influence Google search engines, MoveOn indoctrination, computer hacking, etc. etc. etc. in conjunction with the unwillingness exhibited by individuals employed by the corporate Media [Matters] monolith to "correctly gauge" the implications of such things as blatant legal intimidation of Jewish organizations in order to dictate who they are permitted to host at their own events (merely one example):

"The last thing I remember before I stripped and kneeled

Was a trainload of fools bogged down in a magnetic field."

-----Bob Dylan

trust your instincts

if a politician tells you to "get in people's faces"---the faces of your family, friends, coworkers, etc., and to intimidate them into voting a certain way, they do not respect your abilities to make decisions affecting your own interpersonal relationships, nor the freedom and dignity of others....and you could become one of the "others" some day

emerson of NC 4:14PM September 22, 2008

John A. Farrell

John A. Farrell

John Aloysius Farrell is a contributing editor at U.S. News & World Report. An award-winning Washington reporter, he has written for The Boston Globe and The Denver Post and is the author of Tip O’Neill and the Democratic Century and an upcoming biography of the great American defense attorney, Clarence Darrow.

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