Getting The Youth Vote

By Jonathan Karl/CNN

SEATTLE (AllPolitics, March 14) -- In a practice room, the Seattle band the Toadstools is jamming. Think of Seattle and you think of grunge: the sound track of alienation.

Young people, and not just rockers, are widely seen as disconnected and alienated.

They don't vote, they don't care -- or do they?

"Some day there's going to be a point where I'm going to need to be thinking about different issues, about pulling myself out of this fantasy world where politics don't matter," says Toadstools singer Brett Mercier. "I'm not a big fan of politics, but they do affect me and everyone else."

He and rest of the Toadstools say they'll vote this year, so don't call them apathetic.

One political scientist questions the idea that young people are more cynical today than they were 20 or 30 years ago.

Robert Eisinger of Lewis & Clark College, who's completing a study of political apathy, suggested it's partly a question of defintion.

"The question of what constitutes cynicism or what constitutes apathy is a tricky one," Eisinger said. "Is it not voting? But let's say what if you're not voting and volunteering."

In Portland, 28-yearold Erik Sten has marshalled an army of volunteers in his bid to win a seat on the City Council.

"I'm not out there saying something really simple and straightforward like, 'Gosh, guys, it's really important to vote,'" Sten said. "They understand that. What's really important is that they get choices at the voting booth and the two national parties aren't giving them that right now."

Sten's campaign is a product of XPAC, an organization of young Oregonians dedicated to putting their generation on the political map. Its chairman is Marc Guichard, a 28-year-old urban planner for the city of Portland.

"The way we will live our lives is at stake," Guichard said. "It's our responsibility. Every generation sooner or later has to accept responsibility for running our neighborhoods, our cities, our regions and our country. We haven't done that and we have to step up to bat or we are going to lose."

XPAC doesn't have much money to offer candidates.Instead it offers energetic volunteers ready to work for campaigns that give their generation a voice.

In Oregon, XPAC's task is daunting. In 1975, 36 of Oregon's 90 state legislators were younger than 40 and 11 were in their 20s. Today only six are younger than 40 and none are under 30. And nationally, young people simply don't vote as much as the rest of the electorate.

But in 1992, Bill Clinton directly targeted young voters, most memorably when he played the saxophone on Arsenio Hall's late night TV show.

The strategy boosted youth turnout to its highest level in 20 years and may have helped Clinton win. Still, youth turnout trails the rest of the electorate, a fact many young voters are keenly aware of.

"I don't think they see that they're being represented," one woman said. "So they don't feel that their vote counts."

Young activists may have to work hard to get their peers to the polls in November. During the primaries so far this year, voters under 30 have represented less of the total vote than they did during the 1992 primaries.

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