Today the Center for American Progress Action Fund hosted "Super Tuesday and the Youth Vote," a forum at which panelists discussed the important role young people are playing in today’s elections. The speakers and moderator Erica Williams offered some interesting insights to a room filled with twenty-somethings sipping coffee. It was not unlike university students attending a lecture about themselves.
Here are a couple of points they made:
Kat Barr, director of education at Rock the Vote, said that absolutely the best way to get people (young and old) to the polls is to knock on doors, make phone calls and even approach people at bus stops and offer to register them on the spot. It was an apt description of what LCV staffers have been doing in Marylands 4th Congressional District, going door-to-door in support of Donna Edwards.
TaToia Jones, executive director of College Democrats of America, took the idea one step further and said her think tank frequents nightclubs to put fliers on car windshields. An interesting approach, although we're left to wonder if people go to clubs (or leave) with elections on their minds.
Ethan Eilon, executive director of the College Republican National Committee, said that environmental circumstances have recently boosted youth turnout at elections, proving that the environment is a truly bi-partisan issue.
Finally Karlo Barrios Marcelo rebuffed an attendee’s question of why the current young generation is more apathetic than, say, Vietnam protestors in the 60’s. "Young people are involved," Marcelo replied. However, he added, youth today are generally more committed to acts of community service and information-seeking than public outcries of anger.
Send them a video telling them what issue is most important to you, and they’ll send it to the presidential candidates and major media to let them know what’s on young peoples’ minds!
Here are some photos from this morning's event:
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