Reply #73: Youth Apathy: A Democratic Midterm Nightmare [View All]

[Avant Guardian]

Last midterm independents swung sharply towards Republicans. While still making up 28 percent of the electorate (same as 2008), Republicans won Independents 56 to 38 percent—a 26-point swing from 2008 when Democrats won these voters 51 to 43 percent.

A part of the difference comes from African American voters, who dropped from having 13 percent of the national vote share in 2008 to a 10 percent share on Tuesday.

By and large, though, the four percent drop in Democratic turnout is most attributed to the youth demographic. While in 2008, 47 percent of the electorate was under the age of 44 (with 18 percent in the 18-29 age demographic), in 2010, turnout among this age group crumbled to 34 percent (with only 11 percent in the 18-29 demographic). Even more startling, among 18-24 year-olds, turnout halved from 10 percent in 2008 to a mere 5 percent this year. While one in every 10 voters was a college student in 2008, only one in ever 20 voters this year were college-aged students.

http://earlyrisersweekly.com/2010/11/08/youth-apathy-a-democratic-midterm-nightmare/