Push for youth vote stirs activism on campuses

Villanova University sophomore Alison Flukes sat in a campus cafe discussing the presidential election with a friend while waiting to hear Chelsea Clinton talk.

The debate covered national security, health care, and which television station they preferred for campaign news, Fox or CNN.

The friends said such conversations were common on campus these days.

"Saturday night at a frat party, it's probably not going to come up, but in class and with our friends this is what we talk about," said Flukes, 20, a political-science major from Weymouth, Mass.

Campuses throughout Pennsylvania are buzzing with political activism, driven by candidates who are jostling for youth votes in a fashion that has never been seen here before.

The grueling and unanticipated six-week primary slog through the state has placed an emphasis on young voters, especially college students, who have energized campuses with "dorm storming" voter drives and "springtern" volunteers.

David Burstein, a Haverford College freshman, is the poster child for the new student ethos, with his documentary about youth political involvement, 18 in '08. The film, started when he was 16, has been screened more than 120 times and has spawned a national movement, with political debates and celebrity public-service announcements slated for the fall.

"This is an election that strikes a lot of chords with young people," said Burstein, 18, whose film will be shown Saturday at the National Constitution Center. "Young people feel they have more access to the candidates and the election. They feel they can make a difference."

Barack Obama, with his call for generational change and his personal story, has made campus registration and rallies a cornerstone of his campaign. His efforts here began in March and have included several large events, such as an outdoor speech that drew 20,000 at Pennsylvania State University on a chilly afternoon March 30. His campaign has even brought in out-of-state college students dubbed "springterns."

Amy Miller, 26, a University of Pennsylvania graduate student who was a springtern last month, said young people could relate to Obama because "he speaks our language. The fact that he doesn't come from extraordinary wealth - for people struggling to pay bills, that's important to us."

Hillary Rodham Clinton has worked aggressively to counteract Obama's youthful appeal by dispatching 28-year-old Chelsea to talk at student-life centers from Slippery Rock to Villanova, spliced with some campus appearances by Bill Clinton, who was president when today's college kids were in grade school.

With candidates and their emissaries drawing bigger crowds than high-end job recruiters, colleges have become the epicenter for political hustling. Facebook cofounder Chris Hughes, who took a leave from the hot Silicon Valley tech company to campaign for Obama, stopped at Drexel University to urge students to connect with other supporters on - where else? - Facebook.

"We feel so electrified by this campaign," said Rachel Moore, president of Pennsylvania College Democrats and a senior at Lebanon Valley College. "Students really feel like they have a voice this time around."

Last weekend, the group held its annual convention at Temple University, drawing a record 100 representatives and speakers including Chelsea Clinton and former Sen. Bill Bradley for Obama.

The group announced a large-scale plan to encourage voting at every college in the state, with campus representatives contacting 25 student leaders who in turn contact 25 more, and so on, through November.

"We're really working as hard as we can to get out our message," said Moore, noting that voter turnout among 18- to 24-year-olds has historically been the lowest of any group.

Student leaders see a change brewing this year. There's a sense that "there's so much potential for our futures in this election," said Tom Nardi, president of Villanovans for Hillary.

The youth energy has mostly been associated with Obama, who appears to have built a large lead among Pennsylvania's younger voters. In Franklin and Marshall College's latest poll of Pennsylvania Democrats, voters 18 to 34 supported Obama by 55 percent to 36 percent, while older voters backed Clinton, 45 percent to 32 percent.

Michael Stewart, president of Penn State Students for Barack Obama, said the office was packed all day with student volunteers.

"They're putting in time when they could be out partying or whatever because they really believe in Barack Obama," Stewart said. "He spends a lot of effort hearing students out, and I think they appreciate that and they know that he's willing to fight for their concerns."

There's also the undeniable cool factor. As Sarah Kaufman, 20, of Bryn Mawr College, said at a Michelle Obama rally at Haverford College, "Youth tend to vote for Obama because he has rock-star status."

In past elections, paying attention to younger voters might not have mattered much in a state that trails only Florida and West Virginia in its percentage of senior citizens. The U.S. Census Bureau says overall, about 20 percent of Pennsylvania residents are older than 60 - roughly comparable to their percentage of registered voters in the state.

But new numbers suggest there may be a surge in the Pennsylvania Democratic Party among younger voters, at least going into Tuesday's primary.

Recent figures from the Pennsylvania Department of State for primary registration showed 401,148 registered Democrats ages 18 to 24 and 655,340 ages 25 to 34, constituting 26 percent of total registered Democrats and exceeding those older than 65.

"Young people aren't a voting block that candidates have paid attention to in the past," said Chrissy Faessen, communications director for Rock the Vote, which encourages youth participation in elections. But in 2008, candidates are "out on college campuses talking to young people about the issues that matter to them. The economy ranks as No. 1."

Indeed, college campuses are especially critical to reaching young voters. Pennsylvania has about 700,000 college students - trailing only New York and California - and a big turnout on campuses could matter. Many of the states that have voted ahead of Pennsylvania have seen a surge in young voter turnout, and Obama has about 50 campus support groups across the state, nearly double Clinton.

To reach these voters, all candidates have turned to social networking tools such as MySpace and Facebook. There, too, Obama seems to be winning the war. Late last week, the Web site Techcrunch said he was outpacing Clinton on social networking sites and on the Internet.

It found that among Pennsylvanians, Obama's Web site gets nearly twice as much traffic as Clinton's. It noted that nationally, visitors to sites popular with youths, including YouTube, are four times more likely to view Obama content than Clinton.

Still, going into their first presidential election, young voters can have a tough time picking a candidate. Kaufman, of Bryn Mawr College, has heard Clinton, Chelsea and envoy Madeleine Albright, as well as Grey's Anatomy actress Kate Walsh stumping for Obama, but still can't make up her mind.

"I'm hoping she'll convince me," she said, waiting for Michelle Obama to take the stage. "There's not much time."