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Young voters are turning out. So where's the love?
Campus Camp Wellstone's Mattie Weiss just posted a scathing entry about the underresourcing of young voter organizing at a time when we have the potential to decide the presidential election.
She notes:
[N]umbers indicate that 6.5 million people under 30 voted in this year's primaries and caucuses, and that the overall youth vote has risen from 9 percent in 2000 to 17 percent in 2008.
Meanwhile, who are campaigns focusing on? Swing voters and “hockey moms.”
In this election year, resources are going to campaigns. And campaigns and nonpartisan organizations are missing a crucial opportunity to support youth voting efforts.
Ever since organizations that target youth and students began putting their voter mobilization plans together last spring there has been a scramble for very scarce resources from very few funders-with most organizations significantly cutting back on their plans as a result of insufficient resources.
Young people have issues and organizing strategies. We're turning out in droves. So where's the love?
- Rebecca Fureigh's blog
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