Kristin Martin, Ashley Thompson
Published: Wednesday, October 29, 2008
National youth involvement in the past couple of presidential elections has grown, and students at Pensacola Junior College and the University of West Florida make that growth obvious locally.
According to the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning & Engagement (CIRCLE), the national turnout rate of people under the age of 30 in the primaries rose to 17 percent this year, from 9 percent in 2000.
“I think that there’s a lot of new things going on, like our first black nominee president and our first female vice president nominee, and I think it’s a lot of change from history; and I think a lot of youth want to be a part of that,” said Robert Daniels, 21, a criminal justice student at PJC who is voting for John McCain.
Drew McCrary-Montgomery, 19, an electrical engineering UWF student, said, “I think that with Obama being a black person running – I mean, it’s not why I’m voting for him, but I’m sure that’s drawing a lot of people in; as well as there being Palin, because no matter who gets elected there’s still going to be a milestone in our society coming this Nov. 4.”
PJC and UWF have hosted voter registration drives, viewings of presidential debates and a Students for Obama club.
Chris Randall, 20, a political science student at PJC, is the president of the Students for Obama club, which has about 17 active members. He said the club registered about 300 students to vote.
Students also are paying a lot of attention to the candidates’ views on several different issues.
Randall Goodbred, 20, of Milton is a psychology major at PJC, and said he plans to vote early for Barack Obama. He said the economy is the most important issue to him.
“That’s the plate I’m going to get handed when I get into the real world after college. So, that’s really what I’m trying to pay attention to,” Goodbred said. “I think that Obama takes better care of lower middle class families – people with my family’s income.”
Daniels said he is voting for McCain, because McCain wants to expand domestic exploration and production of natural gas and oil.
“I agree with the fact that (Obama) wants to do a pull-out of all the troops from Iraq,” Randall said. “Plus, his plan for the economy when it comes to dealing with taxes.”
Ashley Durant, 19, from New Orleans is a nursing student at PJC, and in the Students for Obama club. She dislikes the war and would like better health care coverage and lower taxes. She said she also thinks gay marriage should be legal everywhere and abortion shouldn’t be allowed.
“I disagree with abortion. I think that shouldn’t be allowed,” Durant said. However, she added, “If you was raped, I think you should be allowed to get an abortion; because when you look at that child, you think about things that happened to you.”
This election’s presidential candidates are making themselves stand out to youth in numerous ways.
John McCain often refers to his audiences as his “friends,” possibly because many actually are – at least on MySpace. Thousands of young people have MySpace or Facebook profiles, and so do both presidential candidates. Although some students, like Daniels, don’t believe the candidates’ profiles are run by the candidates themselves, those profiles are circulating social networking Web sites, and anyone can ask to be their “friend.”
“MySpace ain’t very reliable,” Daniels said. “I can go make (a profile) for Obama right now. There’s so many fake ones out there.”
However, Daniels is registered on both candidates’ Web sites, and said, “Although, I decided to vote for McCain, I’m also keeping up with Obama’s Web site, because I want to look at both views to kind of keep myself educated.”
Text messaging is also a popular form of communication among the college-aged crowd, and Barack Obama sent text messages out to let everyone signed up for the messages know who he picked as his vice president.
Many young people watch Saturday Night Live, and have seen Tina Fey’s resemblance to Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican vice presidential candidate, who even appeared on a show. Saturday Night Live has featured many presidential skits, including Thursday night specials that imitate the presidential debates.
“I think it’s funny. I think it’s putting a lighter side to the election, and I think that’s pulling in a lot more younger people, too; because it’s making it seem like it’s not such an uncool thing to be involved in politics,” Daniels said. “You can be involved in politics and still have fun with it.”
All students interviewed said voting is important; and everyone should exercise their right to vote, because each vote counts.
“This election is exciting; the youth vote will play a part in the outcome,” said Amanda Clonts, the director of student lobbying at the University of West Florida.
Although most students interviewed support Obama, a poll on www.eCorsair.com showed voters favoring McCain. McCain had 58 percent of votes, Obama had 34 percent and eight percent of the 117 votes on Oct. 23 showed neither candidate as being a preferable president.