Youth vote in the United States

The youth vote in the United States is the cohort of 18–24 year-olds as a voting demographic,^[1] though some scholars define youth voting as voters under 30.^[2] Many policy areas specifically affect the youth of the United States, such as education issues and the juvenile justice system;^[3] however, young people also care about issues that affect the population as a whole, such as national debt and war.^[4]

Young people have the lowest turnout, though as the individual ages, turnout increases to a peak at the age of 50 and then falls again.^[5] Ever since 18-year-olds were given the right to vote in 1971 through the 26th Amendment to the Constitution,^[6] youth have been under represented at the polls as of 2003.^[1] In 1976, one of the first elections in which 18-year-olds were able to vote, 18–24 year-olds made up 18 percent of all eligible voters in America, but only 13 percent of the actual voters – an under-representation of one-third.^[1] In the next election in 1978, youth were under-represented by 50 percent. "Seven out of ten young people…did not vote in the 1996 presidential election… 20 percent below the general turnout."^[7] In 1998, out of the 13 percent of eligible youth voters in America, only five percent voted.^[1] During the competitive presidential race of 2000, 36 percent of youth turned out to vote and in 2004, the "banner year in the history of youth voting," 47 percent of the American youth voted.^[8] In the Democratic primaries for the 2008 U.S. presidential election, the number of youth voters tripled and even quadrupled in some states compared to the 2004 elections.^[9] In 2008, Barack Obama spoke about the contributions of young people to his election campaign outside of just voter turnout.^[10]